Sirius's Top Ten
by Kailoa
Summary: --complete-- Lily makes it on to Sirius's Top Ten Prettiest Girls at Hogwarts and gets caught in the middle of contest between James & Sirius. JL, a bunch more. PLEASE R&R!
1. Lucky Number Ten

**Sirius's Top Ten**

**I know this is short, but it's just a prologue really, and besides, I have this thing against long, long chapters. Please R&R, the next few chapters will be up within today.**

**J.K. Rowling owns every character, aside from ones you'll meet later.**

**Thoughts are in _italics._**

* * *

**Chapter 1: Lucky Number Ten**

"Well... err... thanks, I s'ppose." James Potter said somewhat groggily, running a hand through his messy, jet-black hair as a girl climbed off him, leaving him grasping for air. _Thank God that's over._ James thought to himself as the girl stared at him in utmost admiration. _Boring as hell, that was.  
_  
"No problem James! It was great!" the girl gushed, fidgeting randomly and squinting her brown eyes to hide tears of happiness.  
  
"That it was ..." James tried to agree, but pausing as he tried to remember the girl's name. _It started with a 'B'_... Realizing his memory wouldn't bail him out this time, he put on one of his infamous James Potter smiles. "It was great... you!"  
  
The girl twittered happy and dashed off, presumably to tell her friends. As soon as she was gone, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, two of James' best friends at Hogwarts, appeared from behind one of the many scarlet plush couches in the Gryffindor common room. In his hand, Sirius held a roll of parchment, and grinned smugly at his friend.  
  
"Well done mate, you've almost finished my list!" Sirius said in a mock-awe tone as he plopped down in the armchair next to James. "You're my hero!"  
  
"I'd be worried if I were you." James said cockily. "I've only got one more chick before you become my slave for all of next year!" He had a very smug grin spread across his face – he had just realized how easy this was going to be.  
  
"I can't believe you two!" Remus said in disbelief at his friend's actions. "James kisses ten girls – "  
  
"My top ten girls." Sirius interrupted, winking at James.  
  
"Top ten?" Remus inquired, looking puzzled and feeling even more so.  
  
"I've made a list," Sirius explained, putting on a game show voice. "Of the Top Ten Prettiest Girls at Hogwarts!"  
  
"If I snog all ten, old Padfoot here will be my slave for all of seventh year." James finished, and regaining his cockiness, leaned back in the armchair, tipping it backward on the chair's two back legs, looking very relaxed. "Speaking of which, who's lucky number 10?"  
  
Sirius grinned mischievously and caught Lupin's eye, winking to let him know this would be good.  
  
"Err... Let's see..." Sirius unrolled his parchment and ran his finger down the list. "You just finished with Brenda Halbert..."  
  
"That's who she was!" James announced aloud to himself. "I knew it started with a 'B'!"  
  
"Ah, here we go Prongs, number ten – Lily Evans."  
  
Caught by shock, James leaned a bit too far back, and the chair tipped over completely. Struggling to regain his composure as Remus and Sirius laughed, her popped his head over the fallen chair, causing his friends to laugh harder, his normally messy hair flipped backward.  
  
"Evans?" James repeated, still shocked slightly. "I would have though Cassidy Flemmings, or – "  
  
"Flemmings I'm saving for myself." Sirius coughed, trying to stop laughing. "Besides, I guess you haven't realized, but Evans is pretty."  
  
Remus nodded in agreement. "She's my partner in Potions, and she's quite smart... Nice too."  
  
"But Evans? I don't think I've talked to her directly since the third year!"  
  
"Well, I had to make it a bit of a challenge, mate. Besides, Lily made it on the list, and we're only two weeks into the year, and if I'd put another charver on the list, I would have lost for sure!" Sirius said with a laugh, eying the shocked expression that seemed permanently plastered to his friend's face.  
  
"They aren't all charvs. I rather fancied that B..." James faltered, having forgotten the most previous girl already.  
  
"Brenda?" Remus offered with a sly grin, causing James to look away, knowing his case was hopeless.  
  
"Well Prongs, master of women, I leave you to your devices." Sirius said, with an almost straight face, before rolling up the parchment and trotting off to the dormitory that he, James, Remus, Peter Pettigrew, and another boy in their year, Oliver Field shared.  
  
"What are you going to do?" Remus asked curiously, studying his friend intently.  
  
"Several things. As for Evans, I'll need a bit of your help. You say you're Potions partners..."


	2. Just Friends Then

**Sirius's Top Ten**

**Once more, it all belongs to J.K. Rowling, with the exception of Cassidy and Oliver.**

* * *

**Chapter 2: Just Friends Then**

Lily Evans woke with a start about an hour before breakfast that morning, and decided almost immediately that she wanted to have a shower. She didn't know why, but every morning she just felt... gross. Lily was a perfectionist. She was a responsible homework-doer, who always came top of the class, with the exception of transfiguration. She was any teacher's dream. She was confident, and friendly, but didn't take too well to new situations, which was why she loved books so much. They were her haven.  
  
Fifteen minutes later, a fresher, more awake Lily returned to the dormitory, back from the Prefect Bathroom. She was handy at Charms, and had already used a simple drying spell on her rich, flame red hair and curled it into soft ringlets with another softly whispered spell. The curls cascaded down to about mid-back, framing her oval face and making her dazzling green eyes stand out even more from her pale complexion. She dressed quickly, making sure to pin on her Prefect badge neatly.  
  
She was about to go downstairs when she hear a loud, obtrusive snore. She turned suddenly to see one of her best friends, Cassidy, was still sleeping. A small, mischievous grin flitted across the girl's face, and she pounced on her friend, who woke up puffy-eyed and oblivious.  
  
"Wha?" Cassidy Flemmings grunted sleepily.  
  
Many people we amazed that Cassidy and Lily were friends. They were very different girls. Cassidy was always trying to live on the edge, try new things, and pull the occasional prank on the Marauders. She, too, always finished her homework on time, but not as keenly as Lily.  
  
"Cass, come on. Breakfast is in five minutes. If you don't eat anything now, you'll be grouchy all morning."  
  
"You smell nice today." Cassidy commented randomly as Lily backed off and Cass slowly climbed out of bed. "Why?"  
  
"No reason. Although I think Oliver..." Lily began with a dreamy tone, before being interrupted by Cass, who was pulling a crumpled pair of jeans from the floor up over her hips.  
  
"Not him again, Tig." Cass complained as she did up the top button of her jeans. "It's pointless to even bother with him, since you'll never get married anyways."  
  
"How do you know?" Lily retorted, a hint of anger in her voice.  
  
"His last name is Field. Lily Field? Oh god, I'd hope not."  
  
With that, the two girls burst into laughter, which lasted until they reached the Great Hall, and started up again when Oliver Field joined them and had to sit hopelessly until they were able to control themselves.  
  
"Is sumthin' wrong with you ladies?" Oliver asked, blushing in confusion.  
  
"Oh, nothing." Lily said with a wink to Cassidy as she buttered her toast.  
  
"Yup," Cassidy agreed. "Just having a laugh."  
  
"I'm up for laughs." James Potter said with a grin as he slid up to the table, across from Lily, Cassidy, and Oliver, all of whom looked somewhat gob smacked.  
  
"Do you feel sick, Potter?" Lily asked as she waved her hand in front of his face, the first to recover from shock.  
  
"No, actually, I feel quite fine. How are you, Lily?" James answered absent- mindedly, as he helped himself to scrambled eggs and bacon.  
  
"What are you doing here?" Cassidy asked rudely as Lily was left silent.  
  
"Eating breakfast?" James responded, looking at Cassidy like she was crazy. "How're you, Oliver?"  
  
"I'm fine." Oliver answered, before adding nervously: "Actually, Lily, I was 'oping I could 'ave a private word."  
  
Before Lily could respond however, James put on a look of enlightenment.  
  
"What a coincidence!" James said loudly, "I was hoping to have a word with Lily too! I'll go first!"  
  
Before Lily could object, Potter stood, jogged around to her side of the table, grabbed her hand, and led her out of the Great Hall. Lily looked completely bewildered, but James could see that Sirius had been right. She's quite pretty.  
  
"I think we should date." James offered bluntly, Lily almost laughing before realizing he was serious and coughing to hide her original intentions.  
  
Gaining control of herself, mostly, she couldn't help but giggle.  
  
"Date?" she asked in disbelief. "We hardly know each other."  
  
"So?"  
  
"So? I can't just 'date' you. I don't even know you!" "Know what?" James countered, grinning.  
  
"Well, I don't know your birthday, or –"  
  
"March 11th." James answered automatically.  
  
"Your favourite colour." Lily persisted.  
  
"That's a good one." James said, pausing slightly. "Never really given much thought – "  
  
"Your interests, hobbies. Your family. Your best friends." Lily continued, seeing she was catching him. James opened his mouth to argue, but Lily kept the questions coming.  
  
"Favourite subjects. Favourite sport. Favourite food. Favourite flavour of Bertie Botts!"  
  
Lily faltered, trying to come up with more questions, but she had got him anyways. Her green eyes stared up at James defiantly, for he was at least five inches taller than she.  
  
"Fine." James said, staring back into hers. "We'll be friends first then."  
  
He offered a hand, which she took, and James was amazed at the softness of her hands.  
  
"Alright, well I'll see you later then, P-James." Lily said with a smile, before returning to the Great Hall.  
  
_Not that bad._ Lily thought to herself, as she turned her back on the infamous James Potter. _We'll probably just chat later on. I doubt this will get serious.  
_  
But poor Lily had no idea how wrong she was. 


	3. Potions Partners

**Sirius's Top Ten**

**Once more, it all belongs to J.K. Rowling, with the exception of Cassidy and Oliver.**

**Quick thanks to TeenTypist, who's being ever so supportive -**

* * *

**Chapter 3: Potions Partners**

"Lily! Long time no chat!" James said with a grin as she entered the Dungeons where her Potions classes were held. He was seated at her bench, and was already chopping ingredients for a Polyjuice Potion, which they would be testing next week.

"Err... Remus is my partner." Lily said, quite amazed and shocked by the angry glares she was receiving from the rest of the girls in the room, including the Slytherins.

"Yes, well you see, Remus," James explained with a wink in his friend's direction, "is having a few problems with Potions, and my partner, Sirius, is somewhat knowledgeable in the field."

"So we're swapping then? Partners?"

"Yup. Don't take it personally Lils. I'm sure you're great at Potions, but Remus just needs - "

"Lils?" Lily said with a slight frown, having joined James at their desk. She was now measuring out ingredients for him to chop.

"What? Don't like it?" James asked, looking up from his chopping to catch her eye.

"No, just no one calls me that." she explained, not daring to pull her eyes away from his. She had her fair share of nicknames, a lot of them were weird and didn't make much sense. Cass called her 'Tig', as in 'Tiger Lily', and she wasn't sure how that fit.

"Well, I'm going to. If you have no objections." James said softly, before being hit in the head with a crumpled ball of parchment. He turned to see Sirius waving happily.

"That is disgusting." Sirius muttered to Remus through clenched teeth as he waved joyvially to James.

Remus nodded absent-mindedly, reading through his textbook.

James gave a nod of acknowledgement, before he turned back to Lily, who had begun measuring again, keeping her eyes to the table, probably on purpose.

James suprised himself when he felt a tinge of remorse by this, and longing to look into her emerald eyes again. They captivated him.

Working together in Potions seemed to help the two grow closer, and near the end of fall term, both Lily and James considered each other good friends. They spent time together outside of class too, and the friends of the pair noticed a change in the behaviour of both of them.

James actually did his homework more frequently, and was more considerate and friendly to other members of his house. Lily had 'let her hair down' a bit - she was more adventurous, and fun-loving, speaking her mind more often.

"I still can't believe you're 'just friends' with James Potter!" Cassidy gushed one morning as the girls headed down for breakfast. It was very uncharacteristic of Cassidy Flemmings to speak in such a way, but Lily kept her thoughts to herself.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lily challenged, daring her friend to even bring up the concept with an icy glare.

"Nothing!" Cassidy assured her friend with an innocent smile. "But a lot of girls are jealous of you. I mean, James is the seeker for Gryffindor, a prankster, dashingly handsome..."

"Oh shut up Cass, we're just friends." Lily said desperately as they entered the Great Hall and took their seats.

Oliver joined them shortly after, pleased to see that for once, James Potter was at the opposite end of the table from Lily. Since Lily and James had become 'friends', he and Lily had grown apart, and Oliver didn't like it at all.

"Mornin' Cassidy, Lily." Oliver said as he sat across from the pair, and offering Lily a smile, which she missed as she mouthed something down the table to James, who laughed.

"Morning Oliver." Cassidy said boredly, nudging Lily in the side to avoid direct conversation with Oliver.

"Oh! Oliver!" Lily said brightly as she turned to face him. "How are you? We haven't spoken in a - "

"Ahem. If I could have your attention, please."

A loud voice boomed out over the hall, which immediately fell silent. Headmaster Dippet was standing at the head of the teacher's table, looking as old as ever, but despite his age, he still demanded the attention of a room.

_This will be interesting._ James thought to himself as he, Sirius, Remus, and Peter waited for Dippet to continue. He hardly ever made announcements at breakfast. It was probably something very important, or he would have waited till dinner.

Dippet paused. "Before we eat, I would like to inform you..."


	4. Too Slow Oliver!

**Sirius's Top Ten**

**J.K. Rowling owns every character, aside from Oliver, Cassidy, and another friend you'll meet...**

**Thoughts are in _italics._**

* * *

**Chapter 4: Too Slow Oliver!**

Dippet smiled, somewhat pleased with himself. The Hall was silent, everyone anticipating a deep or sorrowful announcement, or at least something of extreme importance. He paused for a moment, only to further the dramatic effect.

"Before we eat, I would like to inform you of two upcoming events. Firstly, a dance will be held this December, for all students, fourth years and up."

A huge relaxing sigh emitted almost instantaneously from the students, and chatter began to fill the Hall, before it silenced again as Dippet continued.

"The Yule Ball, as it has been named, will be the beginning of a festival that will last throughout Winter Term. This festival will focus on friendship and school unity. Prefects will be in charge of special happenings each week. That is all for now, and since I believe I have woken you up with this news, I expect you all awake and attentful in classes. Let the eating commence."

The Hall errupted in talking, and most students didn't notice as the plates before them were magically filled with food. Oliver glanced to Lily amid the hysteria as several girls ran toward James, Sirius, and Remus. Hoping to ask her to the Ball before Potter did, and his heart pounding in his chest, he felt just as nervous as he had at his sorting. Lily had gone just before him, and he had been desperate to be in the same house as the friendly redhead.

"Err... Lily?"

"Yes Oliver?" Lily replied, swallowing a mouth ful of pumpkin juice before responding.

"I was wondering if perhaps, you and I... That is if you wanted to..." Oliver faltered, loosing his voice as Lily stared at him with confusion.

"LILS!" James Potter's voice boomed out happily as he made his way through a thron of girls and slid on to the bench next to her.

Oliver felt his heart drop, and coughed loudly, trying to find his voice.

"You alright, Oliver?" Lily asked with concern, giving him a questionable look. "You look rather pale."

"Perhaps you ought to go to the infirmary." James suggested, before turning to Lily. "Do you wanna go to the Ball with me?" he asked with a grin. "As friends, of course."

"Sure, I s'ppose." Lily replied thoughtfully.

"Perfect!" James said with a grin, giving her slender nose a soft, playful flick before returning to his friends.

Cass sat in silence and disbelief, many other girls in the Hall sharing her expression. Had James Potter just asked Lily Evans to the Ball? Lily blushed slightly before looking back to Oliver.

"What did you want to ask me, Oliver?"

"Oh, it was nothing. But I think I will go to the infirmary. Excuse me."

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

As James returned to his friends, Sirius gave him a good slap on the back.

"Well done, Jimbo!" He said with a grin. "It looks like you've almost won!"

"Won what?" James asked, with a confused, blatant look, before remembering the contest for the first time in two months. He had genuinely enjoyed his time with Lily. Her hands were soft soft, her eyes enchanting... She was smart, and fun to be around, even if she was a little 'square'.

"I forgot all about that." James answered truthfully with a slight frown, causing Sirius to laugh.

"Moony! Our Jimbo has fallen in the battlefield!" he said loudly, through fits of laughter.

"Huh?" Peter asked, looking clueless as he always did.

"He - loves - her!" Sirius choked out, causing James to flush a deep red.

"Loves who?" Peter asked helplessly.

"Lily." Remus offered helpfully.

"Oh." Peter said thoughtfully, a smile creeping across his face, and joining Sirius in laughing.

_Who would have thought? _James thought silently, trying to shrug off the looks his friends were attracting from their manic laughter. _Me and Lily. This might just work out. I get Lily, and I win Sirius as a slave for next year._ James smiled hopefully at the thought, before smacking Sirius in the back of the head, trying to get him to shut up.

While his three companions bickered, Remus noted how complicated the situation could get, especially if Lily found out about James and Sirius's contest. Hopefully, this James-loves-Lily thing was just a crush, because if she found out, James wouldn't be able have much hope for a relationship of any kind.

Remus could only hope that Sirius and James wouldn't be stupid enough to mention the contest in front of her. He sighed, looking to his friends. Fate was against them. And Lily was smart. She'd find out, eventually.

* * *

**I just realized how short my chapters are. The next will be longer, I hope. I just like having the different bits seperated. Doubt this is making sense. Well, I'm at home all day so another chapter will prolly be up. R&R please!**


	5. Everyone Paired

**Sirius's Top Ten**

**J.K. Rowling owns every character, aside from Oliver, Cassidy, and another friend you'll meet...**

**To my darling reviewers: Thanks for the great encouragement!**

**This one's longer!!**

**PandoraInABox (and other curious readers)** - I guess I apologize for the incorrect timing. Dippet shouldn't be there, and he's going to be gone by Chr- oops, I've said too much. Anywho, I apologize again. Ask anyone who knows, I really have no sense of time.

* * *

**Chapter 5: Everyone Paired**

The weeks leading up to the Ball were filled with excitement and anxiety. Everyone was trying to find dates, and it became a regular occurrence for a girl to burst out in tears during meals, having been put down. Of course, Lily was removed from this anxiety, since she already had a date, and found watching Cass try to find one.

"This is so difficult." Cass complained one morning, two days before the Ball was to take place, munching angrily on her toast.

Lily laughed. "You could always enter Sirius's draw."

"Never!"

Sirius, due the large amount of invitations to the dance, had all girls interested in going with him write their names on slips of parchment in a bowl that sat by the main staircase in the Entrance Hall. At last count, at least one hundred girls had entered, although it looked like several more slips of paper had been added overnight.

"Why not? I mean, you're not going with Oliver, are you?" Lily teased, but Cass flushed, and Lily's eyes widened in amazement. "You're kidding me! What did he say?"

"No, obviously. I asked, but he already has a date. Her name's Abigail. She's a Ravenclaw in our year."

"I'm sorry Cass." Lily replied truthfully. "I'm sure you'll find someone."

It was at that time that Sirius stood up on the bench, and yelled loudly to get the attention of the Hall. As the room fell silent, James and Remus entered, struggling under the weight of the large glass bowl, which resembled a enlarged fish bowl. It was quite large now, at least two feet off the ground, and three feet wide in diameter. As the bowl clunked to the ground, the boys were breathing heavily.

"Attention, please." Sirius said with grin, girls throughout the hall straightening up in their seats with anticipation. "I'd like to announce the winner of the draw. The prize, of course, is to be my date for the Yule Ball. So... let's get on with it then!"

Sirius dipped his hand into the bowl, snatching a piece of parchment and unfolding it. His eyes glittered with mischief.

"The girl who will accompany me to the dance is... Cassidy Flemmings."

The Hall was silent, and Cassidy looked completely shocked, as did Lily. Sirius grinned, and blew Cass a kiss.

"Thanks for your attention!" Sirius said before promptly sitting down.

"I thought you said you would never enter!" Lily said in exasperation, still shocked.

"I didn't though!" Cass said in disbelief, before her face flushed with anger. "SIRIUS BLACK!"

"Oh yes, beautiful date of mine?" Sirius yelled back from his end of the table, before walking up to Lily and Cass, James and Remus in tow.

"How did I win your stupid draw if I didn't even enter it?" Cassidy asked, her face flamed with anger, her tone implying that she was trying to control her anger.

"I have no idea, muffin." Sirius said innocently.

"I refuse to go with you." Cass replied coldly.

"But you won the draw! I can't risk my reputation by drawing again. Can you imagine? 'Okay, I get to draw again because the first girl said no.' No one ever refuses to date a Marauder."

"Lily did. She and James aren't dating." Cassidy replied shortly.

"Yet." James muttered quietly to Sirius, who smiled.

"Pardon me, boys?" Lily asked.

"She has a point, Padfoot." Remus said, conveniently changing the subject.

"Shut-up, Moony." Sirius muttered angrily. "Well, Miss Flemmings, I must inform you that you have no choice in the matter. I will see you on Friday night, promptly at 7 o'clock."

Cass opened her mouth to argue, but Sirius was already leaving the Great Hall, followed silently by Remus. James, however, sat down next to Lily.

"I can't believe him." Cass complained, although really she was somewhat pleased.

"At least now you have a date." Lily reasoned.

"And Sirius isn't that bad." James said with a grin.

"Oh please. You're opinion on this matter doesn't count. He's your best friend, and you'd say that even if he was an ignorant prat, which he - "

"Isn't!" Lily interrupted her friend's rant with a bright smile.

Oliver entered the Hall with a tall brunette on his arm. She was pretty, with dark brown hair that fell to her mid-back, with olive-toned skin and deep brown eyes. He leaned over to kiss her, but she turned her head at the last moment and Oliver got a faceful of hair.

"He got over you quick, Tig." Cass commented as she watched the scene unfold. "That must be Abigail."

Lily nodded silently, but James sat in slight confusion.

"You mean Oliver Field has a thing for you Lils?"

"Had a thing for her you mean." Cass corrected him.

"It was just a tiny thing..." Lily found herself explaining, at an exceptionally fast rate. _Why did she care that James knew how Oliver felt? We're just friends._

"Quick, look away, they're coming over." Cass hissed, turning her head to face them, looking very conspicuous.

"Hi Cassidy. James." Oliver greeted them, leading the girl over to the Gryffindor table. "Lily." he choked out slightly.

"Obviously, he still has a thing for you, Evans. I can see why." James murmured in Lily's ear, which caused Lily to smile, somewhat. James never had really complimented her in that way, which slightly worried her. Oliver was gaping at her though, and she could see the uneasiness in the Ravenclaw girl's face.

"I'm Lily. This is Cassidy, and this is - "

"James Potter." the girl said with a smile. "I'm Abigail Scott. Nice to meet you all."

"The pleasure is ours." James said with a grin.

The group then fell into an awkward silence. Oliver was still staring at Lily, James was staring at him defensively, Abigail looked upset at being ignored, and Cass was still fuming that she had to go to the Ball with Sirius.

"So, Abigail... Are you going to the Ball with Oliver?"

"Yeah..." Abigail replied hesitantly.

Lily smiled brightly.

"That's great! You could get ready with us if you like." Lily offered.

"I'd love to, but since we're in different houses..."

"Never stopped me before." James said with a sly grin.

"James!" Lily exclaimed, giving him a shocked look, to which he could only shrug.

"Great then, we'll get ready together!" Cass said, ending whatever argument might have started.

Abigail and Lily nodded.

"James and I will come and get you in the Entrance Hall an hour and a half before the Ball. Alright?" Lily asked.

Abigail nodded again, and Oliver remained silent.

"Well... I s'ppose we aughta go to class. I'll walk you Abigail." Oliver offered, finally pulling his eyes from Lily.

"Thanks Oliver. Nice meeting you two." Abigail said with a smile to Cass and Lily. "I think we'll be great friends."

With that, Oliver led Abigail out of the Hall, and James frowned at Lily and Cass.

"I like her. She seems nice." Lily commented.

"Yeah. Definitely the wrong type for Oliver." Cass agreed.

"Do you do this every time you meet new people?" James asked curiously.

"What? Comment on them?" Cass replied. "Yeah."

"What did you say when you first met me?" James asked with a sly grin.

"Oh, you don't want to know." Lily said with a mysterious smile.


	6. Prongs Wins and Loses

**Sirius's Top Ten**

**Whoo... Nice long chapter. I just realized as I was typing that I never really gave a description of Cass. Or Oliver. So, in this chapter, you find out what Cass actually looks like.**

**J.K. Rowling owns every character, aside from Oliver, Abby, et Cass.**

**Thoughts are in _italics._**

* * *

**Chapter 6: Prongs Wins & Loses**

"I can't believe how different you are, Tig." Cass said softly as sculpted Lily's curls into an elegant knot at the back of her head. Abigail looked up from her magazine as Cass spoke.  
  
"What do you mean?" Lily asked as she turned on her chair to face Cass, who was already finished preparing for the Ball. A wide, playful smile was spread across Lily's face.  
  
"Exactly that." Cass argued, gesturing to Lily's face. "You seem happier. More alive. Different."  
  
"Good different or bad different?" Lily asked as she stood and pulled her dress over her hips. It was strapless and made of satin and silk, a deep emerald colour that matched her eyes and fell to the floor.  
  
"Good different." Cass said with a smile as she zipped up the back of Lily's dress with an admiring smile.  
  
"I thought you two Gryffindors would be more fun." Abigail said with a laugh as she put Lily's muggle magazine down and hopped off Lily's bed. "But you're just boring and serious!"  
  
Lily and Cass smiled slightly. Abigail, or Abby as they now called her, had officially joined their little 'troupe'. She was a mixture of Lily and Cass – she had a hot temper and felt the importance of study like Lily, and yet, she loved to pull pranks and goof off, like Cass. How she managed to do both was a mystery.  
  
"You look amazing, Lily. You too Cass." Abby said with a smile as she walked up to Cass and tugged down on her dress, smoothing out a few wrinkles. "But next time, don't leave your dress on the floor."  
  
"Meh. All my clothes are used to it." Cass replied. "Besides, its not like I'm trying to impress Black."  
  
Lily laughed softly. Abby was right. Cass did look amazing. Abby did too. To suite her complexions, Abby was wearing a deep crimson gown that was tightly fitted and hung off the shoulder. Her dark hair was straightened, the front pieces of hair tied back with a ribbon, matching her dress. Cass wore a light sky blue dress was off the shoulder. Her dirty blonde hair was down, and Lily and Abby had struggled to put it into thick, bouncy ringlets. The dress really brought out her eyes.  
  
"So?" Abby challenged. "It's not like I'm trying to impress Oliver, and I'm still dolling myself up."  
  
"What? Since when?" Cass asked, looking confused.  
  
"He's totally got it for Lily." Abby said with an envious smile to Lily. "I don't mind though. I don't think he was really my type."  
  
"So why are you going then?" Cass asked, still somewhat confused.  
  
"You never know, I could meet another lad." Abby said with a hopeful grin.  
  
"Anytime now, ladies!" Sirius yelled as he barged into the dorm, causing the girls to scream. Sirius halted in his tracks as his eyes fell on Cass, and he could feel his jaw drop. He stood there, gob smacked, until Lily had the sense to push him out the door.  
  
"We'll be down in a minute." She muttered, shutting the door in his face.  
  
**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**  
  
Sirius breathed heavily as he made his way down the stairs and into the throngs of Gryffindors, meeting their dates. Finally, he found James, who was standing anxiously, whistling. Sirius smiled. He hadn't been far off when he joked about James being in love with Evans. By the looks of things, he was.  
  
"She decided she didn't want to go." Sirius said solemnly as he reached his friend.  
  
"Who, Lily? Why?!?" James looked heartbroken.  
  
"Nah, just kiddin' with ya!" Sirius said with a laugh. "She's coming. She looks hot too."  
  
James resisted the urge to punch Sirius in the nose. His face lit up as he saw Lily walking down the steps. She looked utterly gorgeous, and her dress, which he presumed was a muggle style, caused her eyes to look more radiant than ever. She smiled and blushed slightly as she caught his eyes, and their glance didn't break until she had walked up to him.  
  
"You look amazing." James said quietly.  
  
Lily blushed. "Thanks. You don't look too bad yourself."  
  
"Is that a muggle dress?"  
  
"Yes. Abby and Cass are wearing them too. We thought we'd look better."  
  
"You do."  
  
Abby, who had been following Lily down the stairs, glanced about for a moment, and unable to find Oliver and not really caring whether she did or not, joined Lily and James as they left for the Great Hall. Sirius and Cass followed, Sirius unable to keep his eyes off Cass, and Cass swearing vehemently under her breath. The Great Hall looked amazing. Snow fell from the ceiling, and the traditional twelve Christmas trees Hogwarts had each year matched the silvery, ice-theme the entire room had going.  
  
Lily gasped as they entered, amazed by its beauty.  
  
"Fuck." James muttered to himself, causing Lily to look at him with an amused frown.  
  
"What?"  
  
"The snow. It'll ruin my hair."  
  
Lily laughed, and James pulled her out on to the dance floor.  
  
"Abby was right." Cass said with an amused smile as she watched her friend from the other side of the Hall. Abby had only walked in moments ago, and already a nice-looking boy who Cass recognized as one of the other sixth year Ravenclaws was chatting her up.  
  
"About what?" Sirius asked, glancing up and looking around.  
  
"About meeting a nice 'lad' here."  
  
Sirius frowned. "What about Field?"  
  
"Apparently, he's not her type, and he still – "  
  
"'Ello Cass." Oliver said with a weak smile as he joined Sirius and Cass at their table. "You 'aven't seen Abigail, 'ave you?" he asked hopefully. "I thought she was getting ready with you."  
  
"Err... No. Afraid I haven't." Cass said with an innocent smile as Abby looked over with concern and shook her head violently.  
  
"I think she might be out in the garden." Sirius suggested.  
  
"'Kay. Thanks, I'll check there." Oliver said, the weak smile still plastered on his face as he stood, and walked out into the garden.  
  
"Poor guy." Sirius commented, not feeling at all remorseful.  
  
"He asked for it. Apparently when he and Abby were still 'together', all he'd do was compare her to Lily, or talk about Lily, or stare at Lily."  
  
"Jimbo's got competition then."  
  
"Not really, I mean they're only fr – "Cass stopped as she looked out to James, who was staring into Lily's eyes with a lust like there was no tomorrow.  
  
"Lily?"  
  
"Yes James?"  
  
"When's my birthday?"  
  
Lily frowned. "March 11th."  
  
"What do I like to do?"  
  
"Play pranks? Play Quidditch?"  
  
"What's my family like?"  
  
"Well, I've never met them, but from what I hear, your Dad's smart, and he's an auror. Your mom fusses over you all the time..."  
  
"What's my favourite Bertie Botts flavour?"  
  
"Cherry."  
  
"What's my favourite colour?"  
  
"Maroon." Lily answered automatically, before frowning slightly. "Why?"  
  
"You know me, Lily Evans. You know my favourite sport, and my favourite subjects. You know I love chocolate frogs. And I know you." James paused, gazing into her eyes intently. "And I know, that I'm in love with you."  
  
Lily's mind was blank, she couldn't think of anything to say, or do. She had never felt more uncomfortable in her life. But then, he did it. He leaned down, and kissed her softly on the lips.  
  
"Damn, he's won." Sirius muttered back at the table, watching James and Lily with disgust.  
  
Cass was beaming, but couldn't help but look over at Sirius in confusion. "What's that supposed to mean?"  
  
"Nothing!"  
  
Lily and James came apart, and Lily's cheeks were flushed. Her heart was racing wildly.  
  
"I err... I think I love you too." She smiled, and James felt his heart leap.  
  
"Do you want anything to drink?" Lily asked awkwardly after a moment of silence.  
  
"Sure." James said with a smile, before joining Sirius and Cass as Lily went to the food table. As soon as James sat down, Cass immediately stood up, crossing the dance floor to talk to Lily.  
  
"Wow, Prongs, I am impressed." Sirius said with a grin.  
  
"What? I actually think I'm in love with her Padfoot."  
  
"You won though, mate. You snogged all ten girls on my list, including Lily Evans! You deserve to win!"  
  
"I'm sure he does." Lily said icily.  
  
James turned to see her standing behind him, gripping two cups of pumpkin juice, her face flushed and her eyes welling up. Cassidy stood behind her in disbelief, her eyes throwing daggers at James.  
  
"Lils, it's really not – "James began.  
  
"Shut it, Potter." Cass replied angrily, as tears started rolling down Lily's cheeks. Lily stood there silently, in disbelief, before being shepherded by Cass out of the Hall and up the stairs toward the common room.  
  
James followed desperately, trying to get Lily to look him in the eye. "Please Lils, it did start out that way, but since then... I've fallen in love with you."  
  
"Why should I believe you, James Potter? Our whole relationship was just so you could win some bloody contest. Congratulations."  
  
And with that, James was left speechless on the stairs, as Lily and Cass made their way up to the dormitories.  
  
Abby met him on the stairs, leading her new beau up to a more 'secluded' spot. She stopped as soon as she saw his crestfallen face. "What happened, James?" she asked, looking at him with confusion.  
  
"She found out. She hates me." He muttered.  
  
"Who found out?"  
  
"Lily."  
  
"About what?"  
  
"Sirius and I had a contest going and..." James explained the story quietly, the whole time sounding as if he, James Potter, were on the verge of tears. As soon as he finished, Abby slapped him across the face. It wasn't the reassuring reaction James was expecting.  
  
Abby looked absolutely furious. "You stupid little..." she couldn't even find the words. "I can't believe you! How could you be so cruel? How could you use her like that?"  
  
"I don't know." James admitted feebly.  
  
Explaining to her date that she had to go see Lily, Abby stormed upstairs, and for those who didn't know why she was so mad, they could easily picture a giant thundercloud above her head.  
  
Remus joined James silently, a sympathetic look on his face.  
  
"What have I done, Moony?" he asked, amazed at how stupid he had been. Lily would never look at him the same way again.  
  
"You've messed things up." Remus said quietly. "But you're James Potter. You always come out on top."

* * *

**Poor Oliver. Oh well, don't worry, he will get to have some happiness in his life very shortly. Thanks again to TeenTypist, who seems to love this story and is giving me such nice comments =D**


	7. The Tap Group

**Sirius's Top Ten**

**Hehe. I secretly wrote this chapter while I was supposed to be doing homework. See how nice I am?? Anywho, the title for this chapter won't make sense until the very end. Thanks again for all the comments!**

**J.K. Rowling owns every character, aside from ones you'll meet later.**

**Thoughts are in _italics._**

* * *

**Chapter 7: The Tap Group**

The "Great Freeze" as Sirius had begun calling it had been going on for a week now. Somehow, the entire school found out about what had happened to Lily that faithful night, and most of the female population refused to even speak with the Marauders. Girls of all years from Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw refused to acknowledge that the Marauders even existed. They refused to laugh when the boys made jokes in class, or played pranks on Snape. The boys of the school wouldn't talk to them either, mostly because they didn't want to get in trouble with the girls. Only a small handful of Slytherin girls still talked to them, but none of the Marauders were keen on the idea of snogging Slytherins.

"I still think it was Snape!" Sirius said angrily, hitting his fist on the table at breakfast, about a week after the Ball.

"Mebbe." Peter agreed, through a mouthful a cereal. He swallowed. "I mean, he was sitting somewhat close by."

Sirius nodded, happy that someone agreed with his theory, and looked to James. "What do you think?"

"Lily's never going to forgive me, is she?" James asked absent-mindedly, his soft, hazel eyes looking around the table for her.

"I thought we'd been through this, Prongs. She'll come around. Besides, she was just a girl. Normally we've gone through about twenty each by now." Sirius reasoned.

"At this rate, you won't hit twenty by the end of the year." Remus commented as he sat down across from Sirius and James. "More that eighty percent of the girls in the school think you two are 'sexist pigs who treat women as objects with no value.'"

"Where'd you get that from?" Sirius asked, looking quite confused.

"The flyer."

"They have FLYERS? Why the hell do they need bloody flyers?!?"

"'To show those sexist pigs' – us – 'that we' – the girls – 'disprove of the way they handle women.'" Remus replied automatically, reading off a bright pink flyer that he had found the common room.

"This is getting out of hand. James, you have to talk to her." Sirius said anxiously, snatching the paper from Remus's hands. "They call me 'a cruel, heartless womanizer.' Well, they got the womanizer bit right!"

"She won't listen, besides, I can't get near her without being hexed to oblivion." James answered, straightening up as he saw Lily enter the Hall, surrounded protectively by Cassidy and Abigail. "She'll never forgive me."

It had been like that since the Saturday after the Ball. Abby and Cass hadn't left her side at all. Between and during classes, at meals, any time when James could've tried to approach her. Whenever he try, Cass and Abby would pull out their wands, and hex James till he couldn't stand. James had been to the infirmary three times in the past week. But every time, he had refused to tell who hexed him. It was the least he could do.

"Still in his Lily-will-hate-me-forever state, I see?" Remus said, glancing up from his Daily Prophet.

"Yeah. I think he must be feverish." Sirius said, only looking slightly concerned.

Truthfully though, Sirius was scared. He had never seen James so hung up on a person, let alone a girl he had only kissed once. But Sirius didn't see his dear friend's dreams.

Every night that James finally thought he was over Lily, he would see her face in his dreams. Her pale skin red from the sting of tears, the heartbroken look of disbelief… But he hadn't been lying when he said he loved her. He knew he wasn't. Every time he saw her in classes, his heart would jump. Every time he watched her laugh with Cassidy or Abby, his heart would jump. Every time she gave him that sad look of disbelief, his heart would break.

"I'm going to talk with her." He said simply, standing.

"Not again Prongs. Like you said, you'll be hexed into oblivion." Peter protested, though he made no movement to stop her.

"I'll have to risk it. I have to make peace with her."

"That you do. That way I might be able to get a date for Christmas Break, when it starts next weekend." Sirius agreed, standing to accompany his friend.

"Oh great, here comes Potter." Abby grumbled. She had been sneaking a glance at Remus, who was her current crush, though she wouldn't admit it to Cassidy or Lily just yet. Cass would bite her head off for 'betraying' Lily.

Cass groaned, but reached into her pockets to find her wand. Gripping her hand around the slender stick, she looked coldly at Potter as he approached.

Though conversation through out the Hall continued, several pairs of eyes were watching the scene, from all five tables.

"Poor James." Albus Dumbledore, a professor, remarked, watching from the Teacher's Table.

"From what I hear, Albus, he very much deserves it." Minerva McGonagall replied. "Not that I care to mingle in the lives of students." She added quickly, as Headmaster Dippet gave them an odd look.

"Could I talk to you for a moment, Lils?" James said quietly as he approached the girls. Abby and Cass glared at him, but Lily was looking intently at the table.

"Get lost Potter." Cass muttered angrily, raising her wand threateningly.

"As much as I enjoy our conversations, Cassidy, I was talking to Lily." James replied, keeping his voice even, trying not to yell and make a scene.

"Fine." Lily replied with no show of emotion, standing slowly. Her mother always told her that the best way to sort out an issue or problem was to talk about it. _I can't believe I'm actually listening to Mum and talking to James._ She thought silently to herself, before walking out of the Great Hall, James following.

"He is so screwed." Sirius said with a grin as he sat down at the table. Cassidy and Abby remained expressionless, their faces cold.

"Well… I'll be off then." Sirius said awkwardly, before retreating back to Remus and Peter.

"What do you want, Potter?" Lily asked quietly. She could feel her eyes welling up with tears already. She had been in love with him, she knew it. But she wouldn't let him see how much she was hurting. She decided to keep her eyes from meeting his glance by staring at his chin.

"I want to talk to you. About what happened at the Ball." James began, before frowning slightly, and wiping his chin. "Have I got something on my chin, Lils?"

Lily quickly looked away, but it took only seconds for her eyes to lock with his.

"My name is Lily. To you, I'm Evans." Lily said softly, knowing her eyes had given her away. She hadn't slept well for the past week. _He used you. He lied. He was only your friend for the contest. You don't even know the real James Potter._ The voice in her head reminded her.

"Come on Lils – "

"Evans."

"Whatever. Please, just hear me out."

"I'm listening."

"I didn't really know you, you know, before Sirius and I started the contest. And when you were the last girl I needed to kiss to win, I still didn't know you. You said we had to be friends first. At first, it was about the contest. I admit it, I mean, I didn't know you, so I didn't care. But then I really got to know you Li – Evans, and I forgot about the contest. I fell in love with you."

Lily remained silent, but tears were streaming down her cheeks. James felt his heart break in two.

"Lils, please." James said quietly, taking a step closer. "Give me another change. I was stupid. I care about you more than anything, I – "

"Excuse me." Oliver Field said awkwardly, appearing from the Great Hall with Lily's bag on his arm. He took Lily's arm softly, turning her to face him. He smiled reassuringly. "Can I still walk you to class?"

"Yes. Thank you Oliver. Excuse me, James."

She let Oliver lead her up the stairs towards Transfiguration, but she could feel James's gaze on her the entire time, until they were out of sight.

James sighed, wanting to kick himself. _I'm such an idiot._

Suddenly, there was a crash behind him, as Cassidy, Abby, Remus, Sirius, and Peter all fell through the doorway. Obviously, they had been listening from within the Great Hall. Sirius pulled Cass up with a smile, while Remus helped Abby.

"The 'Great Freeze' will melt if you make an apology at lunch today." Sirius said with a grin, as the group closed in around James. "Plus – "

"We'll forgive you if you help us with one thing." Cass interrupted. "Get rid of Oliver."

"What?" James asked with a look of confusion.

"Freeze ends with apology. Abby and Cass want you to split up Oliver and Lily."

"They're together? Since when?" James was still confused.

"Since… err… what it Thursday Cass?" Abby asked, frowning slightly.

"I think so." Cass agreed. "It's our fault though. Lily said she wasn't ready but we convinced her it would help her get over – "

Cass stopped as she was nudged violently in the side by Abby's elbow. _Right._ Cass thought to herself with an innocent smile. _Never let him see she's hurting._

"We'd prefer her to be with a slime ball like you than with Oliver." Abby added, covering up Cass's mistake.

"Gee, thanks." James said sarcastically.

"They're not even really 'together' yet, and he's kinda obsessive." Cass added.

"What do you mean?" Peter asked curiously.

"He sent her flowers this morning." Cass explained. "400 more roses to top the 300 he sent yesterday."

"He's taken over our jobs. We're supposed to walk her around, protect her from you. Not him." Abby complained.

"Poor Oliver." Remus said through the thick of the conversation. "We're all out to get him. I feel guilty."

"Fine, how bout this, Moony. Once he and Lily are happily broken up, we'll find him a girl for himself." Sirius offered, hoping that some girl at this school would love the chance to go out with a lad who sent her flowers every morning.

"It's settled then. For now, we are the Coalition Against the Relationship of Lily and Oliver." Cass said proudly.

"Or CARIO for short." Abby added. "That way we can discuss matters in front of Lily. Our cover is a Defence Against the Dark Arts group."

"Nah. She'd want to join. How about a tap class? Lily hates tap." James said thoughtfully, surprising both his friends and the girls.

"What is 'tap' exactly?" Peter asked.

"Not now Wormtail, first we must plan the first stage of Operation Dance-off."

"Operation Dance-off?" Abby asked incredulously.

"We're a tap group, remember?"


	8. Happy One Sixth Birthday

**Sirius's Top Ten**

**Here's chapter 8!**

**_TeenTypist_** - If you're truly feeling sorry for Oliver, I don't think you'll like this chapter either... But don't worry, I will reward him for being my toy...

**_goddesgaia_** - I'm glad! I love writing it.

**J.K. Rowling owns every character, aside from Abby, Oliver, Cass... and someone else.**

**Thoughts are in _italics._**

* * *

**Chapter 8: Happy One-Sixth Birthday**

"Dungbombs? You've got to be kidding me. She'd know it was you guys." Cass objected, crossing out the idea on Sirius's roll of parchment.

"Yeah, you guys always do stuff like that." Abby agreed.

"Are we really that predictable?" Sirius asked, amazed at the girls sitting across from them. Abby and Cass were the two least likely people to be participating in this sort of endeavor. Glancing up to see a familiar redhead enter the Great Hall, accompanied by 'the enemy'. Quickly, he rolled up the parchment and shoved it in his pockets, giving Lily an innocent smile as she sat down. Oliver was heading over to the Hufflepuff table.

"So they finally sorted him into the right house, then?" James asked slyly.

"He's speaking with Amos. No need to be rude, Potter." Lily replied shortly, looking through the large stack of mail that had arrived for her that morning. She had skipped breakfast for a prefect meeting with Remus.

James winced as she called him Potter, but it was better than not being spoken to at all.   
  
"What is all that?" Cass asked curiously, snatching a letter from Lily's pile and opening it. It was a heart shaped card, which immediately began to sing 'All You Need Is Love.' Cass laughed, reading through the message inside. "He's quite smitten, Tig."

Abby glanced over Cass's shoulder and giggled. "Oh. Happy One-Sixth Birthday!"

Sirius frowned. "What's a One-Sixth Birthday?"

"Apparently it's when a sixth of the time until your actual birthday is." Remus explained, though he too looked quite baffled.

"He sends you One-Sixth Birthday cards?" James asked incredulously, trying to hide his laughter as Oliver joined them, Cass hiding the card she had opened under the table.

"Hello, Muffin." Oliver said dreamily, gazing at Lily so intently that James wanted to punch him in the face.

"Err... hi Oliver. How's Amos?" Lily asked with an awkward smile.

"He's good. Sorry I took so long, he was talking to me about Hufflepuff's new quidditch plans..."

"Really?" James asked, perking up with interest. "Plans like what?"

Oliver laughed. "I wouldn't tell you James. I mean, I'm not that stupid.

_Surprised me._ James thought quietly, for once keeping his thoughts to himself.

After a few moments of awkward silence, Abby began gathering her things. "Well, I'd better head off for my CARIO meeting." she said with a mischievous smile.

"CARIO?" Lily asked, frowning slightly.

"Yeah. It's a tap group." Cass said with a bright smile. "I'm a member too."

"I don't think I've ever heard of 'CARIO', have you passed the club with Dumbledore?" Lily asked curiously.

_Fuck._ James thought to himself. Lily was a prefect, she knew about all the different clubs and such. How could they have not realized?

"That's what I was going to do right now!" Sirius said with a happy grin. "I'm the president! I mean... Leader!"

"I didn't know you were into Muggle dancing." Lily commented, wondering why her friends (and non-friends) were acting so strangely.

"Love it!" Sirius lied enthusiastically. "Me and James have been doing tap since we were five!"

"Really? You never told me that, Potter."

"Yeah, well, it never came up." James said bashfully, hating the fact that he was lying to Lily.

"Well, as Prefects, Remus or I could authorize it for you." Lily suggested.

"Perfect! Remus, old pal, will you do the honours?" Cass said with a hyper grin - lying was not his strong suit.

"Sure. Good idea, Lily." Remus said with a glazed smile. The entire group jumped up, and left the hall in a hurry, leaving only Lily and Oliver.

"Well, now we can be alone..." Oliver said quietly, gazing into Lily's eyes.

"We just were." Lily said, looking down the table for someone else to talk to her.

"Oh, yeah." Oliver said sheepishly, before pecking her on the cheek and going to talk to Amos again, leaving Lily alone.

-----------------------

"That was so bloody close!" Sirius said in relief.

"I know!" Cass agreed. "But you can see what we mean, eh? Just a tad obsessive."

"That boy spooks me out." Sirius admitted, before glancing to James, who was staring at the wall, lost in thought.

_Lily didn't seem very comfortable with him. Maybe she doesn't even like him. _He could still feel her soft lips on hers. James smiled to himself at the thought.

"HEYLO?!?! PRONGS?!?!"

James snapped out of his thoughts as Sirius jumped about in front of him, yelling loudly.

"What?"

"You were so out of it!"

"So? You're not the only one who gets to be 'out of it!'" James replied, grinning.

"Ouch." Cass said with a smile, before adding thoughtfully, "I wonder if they've been approved yet."

At that exact moment, Abby was sitting with Remus in Headmaster Dippet's office, as he reviewed the form Remus had filled out, requesting a new club, by the name of CARIO.

"What does CARIO stand for, Mr. Lupin?" he asked slowly, glancing up from the parchment.  
  
"Err..." Remus paused, trying to think of a good name.

"Coalition of Appreciators of River music, Irish dance, and Outlets for creativity!" Abby said brightly, stringing random dancing-themed words together.

"Interesting." Dippet commented. "Although I'm not sure the word 'Appreciators' exists. Despite that, I think it will be a great idea. But you say you want it to be a private club?"

"Yes, Sir. You see, we take tap dancing to heart, and only want those who take it seriously joining our troupe. We want commitment, and people to be serious." Remus offered. He couldn't believe how much he had lied to Dippet today. However, he was impressed at Abby's quick thinking for what CARIO stood for.  
  
"Well, I suppose I will allow you to start this club. I assume you, Mr. Lupin, will be overseeing the club?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Well, congratulations then, CARIO has been born. However, to prove to me that you're serious about this..."

-----------------------------

"Checkmate, again." James said with a smug grin as his queen destroyed Sirius's king, winning the game.

"How are you so good at this? I mean, you're just as stupid as me, and yet you kick arse at chess."

"Tis a gift." James agreed.

Sirius turned to see Remus and Abby enter the common room.

"Well?" he asked expectantly.

"We've been approved." Abby said solemnly.

"Great!"

"What's wrong with you?" James asked curiously. "You're supposed to be happy."

"Well... since we didn't want other people joining the club, we had to tell Dippet we only wanted people who were serious." Remus began.

"So?" Sirius asked, confused.

"Well, to prove how 'serious' we are, we're to perform a tap number just before Easter." Abby finished. The boys were silent, and Cass, who had been reading and listening, was gaping.

"Perform? We're so friggin' screwed."

The group agreed with Sirius's comment, despite how badly he had worded it.

"Lily's worth it though." James said, his hazel eyes watching the girl's dormitory door.

Cass followed James' glance, and instantly forgave him. _Maybe he wasn't lying, and the contest thing caught up with him. I mean, if I were in a contest with Sirius, I wouldn't want to loose. I'd never hear the end of it._

"I think I'm going to catch some shut-eye before Potions." Abby said slowly, walking up the steps to the dormitory. Despite the fact that she was in Ravenclaw, she spent most of her time in the Gryffindor common room anyways - between classes, at night. James would then escort her back, under the invisibility cloak to her own common room, where she would sleep.  
  
"Yeah. I think I've gotta talk to Lily. I've had an epiphany." Cass agreed, standing to join Abby and Lily upstairs.  
  
"You've finally realized your true feelings for me, you mean?" Sirius asked with a wicked grin.

"You just keep dreaming." Cass replied, sticking out her tongue and climbing the stairs.  
  
Lily had somehow beat her friends back up to the common room. She was sitting on her bed, surrounded by flowers and cards from Oliver, staring at the wall right above the doorway.

"Tig?" Cass asked, frowning as she traced Lily's gaze. "Whatcha looking at?"

"Just thinking."

"About?" Abby asked, sliding through the door behind Cass and plopping down on Lily's bed.

"Oliver. I mean, he's great boyfriend. Sweet, involved... He's cute... Devoted... I can trust him." Lily said softly, like she was convincing herself more than anyone else.

"Of course. I'm sure he's great." Cass agreed.

"What do you like about him?" Lily asked curiously.

"Oliver? Well, he's nice... Very devoted..." Cass agreed.

"Yeah... and cute. And devoted." Abby added.

"If a little... obsessive." Cass added tactfully.  
  
"You think?" Lily asked, looking astonished and pleased to hear it all at once. "I mean, I thought it was just me, but the cards and flowers and everything... They seem a bit much."

"Yeah." Abby agreed.  
  
"And you know, we don't connect well. He's always talking about how beautiful I am, and that's nice, but that's all we ever talk about. At least with Jam - " Lily stopped herself. She wasn't about to say 'James', was she? "I mean, I just wish he was a bit more... deep."  
  
"Understandable." Abby said with a wink toward Cass. Lily still liked James.  
  
"I've got an idea... For a dance move for CARIO!" Cass stood urgently, leaving the dormitory and heading downstairs to discuss her plan with Sirius.

Abby shrugged. "Well, I ought to go too then. But Lillers," she said, pausing at the doorway. "If you're not into Oliver, don't drag him on. It would be nicer just to dump him."

Lily nodded, knowing that Abby was right. Abby smiled briefly and headed downstairs.

"Perfect, Agent 02 is here, for Operation Dance-off, Revised 1." Cass said with an evil grin as Abby joined the group in a corner of the common room.

"What?" Abby asked, frowning slightly.

"You're going to be a major component of Operation Dance-off, Revised 1." Sirius said, as though it was easy to understand what they were talking about.

Cass groaned. "Lily still likes James, following?"

"Yes."

"So, you're going to date James."

"What? Why?" Abby looked surprised and upset, as did Remus.

"So that Lily will get jealous, and dump Oliver for James." Sirius said, beaming at Cass.

"And then you'll dump James, and... POOF! Our problems will be gone." Cass finished.

"Cass, I don't think that's a good idea." Abby protested.

"Yeah. I mean, it's kinda unfair to Abby and James." Remus agreed.

"I don't mind." James lied. He did mind, in fact, he never wanted to kiss another girl in his life, only Lily. But to win her back, he'd do anything.

"I do!" Abby cried. "Lily's one of my best mates!"

"You don't have to kiss or anything. Just hold hands, sit together in classes..." Sirius offered, trying to get her keen on the idea.

"Then you can go back to that stupid I-have-a-crush-on-Remus-but-I-don't-know-if-he-likes-me phase, and Remus to his I'm-in-love-with-Abby-but-I'm-too-afraid-to-tell-her phase." Cass said, sounding annoyed.

"What?!?!" Remus and Abby yelled, both flushing a deep shade of scarlet.

"Oh come off it, it's like so obvious!" Sirius said with a smile as he waddled around like the ditzy girls of Hufflepuff did.

Abby glared daggers at him, before taking Remus's hand and leading him away from the group.

"Is it true?" she asked softly, gazing into his soft blue eyes.

"Yeah." Remus admitted sheepishly, staring back into her deep brown ones.

"Me too."

"You mean?"

"Yeah."

"Then, Abigail... will you do me the honour of being my girlfriend?" Remus asked timidly.

"I thought you'd never ask!" Abby said, a bright smile crossing her face. She kissed him quickly on the cheek, and pulled him into a hug.

"Well, obviously we can't use Abby then." Sirius commented, watching the pair from their corner. "It's all your fault Cass."

"We'll just have to find a girl who actually likes Oliver, then." Cass replied simply.

"Wait a minute... There's a girl in fourth year, a Hufflepuff, who's always giving him looks at meals!" Sirius said, amazed he had even thought of it.

"Looks? Of what? Disgust? Admiration? Love?" Cass asked impatiently.

"Uh... Love, I s'ppose. I mean, they're the same looks James gives Lily."

"It's love then." James said decidly.

They just had to figure out who this girl was, and get her in on the plan.


	9. PMS Always Ruins My Fun

**Sirius's Top Ten**

**J.K. Rowling owns every character, aside from Cassidy, Abby, Oliver, Charlie, and err... think that's it.**

**I've just noticed how I have quite a few grammatical errors, so I'm looking for an active BETA reader. Please email me if interested.**

**Thoughts are in _italics, _unless specified as Abby's handwriting.**

* * *

**Chapter 9: PMS Always Ruins My Fun**

"I was stupid. I mean, I really truly was a prat. You beautiful ladies are not material possessions, and I was wrong to even indicate that you were. I can only sincerely apologize, especially to Lily Evans, who got the worst of this mean joke."

James spoke out solemnly across the Great Hall, which was silent. Most faces held blank looks, but many girls gave him admiring smiles, like the kind he used to receive constantly before the 'incident'.

With a brief smile, he gave a quick bow before promptly dropping back down onto the bench. He had been standing on the bench so everyone could see him, after being introduced by Headmaster Dippet, whom he had spoken with earlier.

"Well done, you said every word correctly." Sirius commented quietly, stuffing a piece of parchment in his pocket.

Remus had been nice enough, and dazed enough, to write a very polite and meaningful apology, which James would have been hard-pressed to come up with on his own. Getting Remus to do anything lately was as easy as asking. He had already helped Sirius finish most of his Potions essay. Remus's head was up in the clouds; his only clear thoughts were of Abby. He was completely smitten, and in this state, a complete pushover.

Abby felt the same, although she was a bit less light-headed. She still refused to do Cass's homework, although Cass had asked several times.

"Thank you, Mr. Potter." Dippet said, rising to begin the evening's meal with regular announcements. "I must inform you all that when you return from Christmas Break, that I will no longer be headmaster of Hogwarts. My assistance is needed at the Ministry, and thus, Professor Dumbledore will be retaining my position during the break. It has been a great pleasure to teach and watch after you all, even some of your parents, and I wish you all the best. I have a few quick thank-yous I would like to make…"

"This'll take all night." Sirius moaned.

"Quit complaining, Black, and have some compassion. The man is retiring!" Cass replied with annoyance.

"Doesn't mean he has to thank every bloody wizard alive." Sirius replied coolly, leaning back to get comfortable. "Wouldn't be surprised if he thanked the muggle Prime Minister next."

"Why would he thank the muggle prime minister?" Abby asked, raising her brow.

"Dunno. But at this rate, you can see it happening, no?"

The group fell silent for a moment as Dippet continued to read names off a scroll that had magically appeared in front of him. James looked up from his plate to see Lily watching him. She smiled slightly, before looking back to Dippet. James smiled to himself, a grin spreading across his face.

"I'd like to thank Professor Aavor, for all her kind words and support." Dippet continued.

"If he's doing this in alphabetical order, we'll be here all night." Remus murmured, Peter nodding in agreement.

And indeed they were. After about fifty minutes, however, many students noticed Professor McGonagall putting a charm on Dippet, causing him to race through the D's, E's, and F's all the way through to the Z's in a matter of fifteen seconds. He finished with Orlic Zumi, and then sat down, the plates finally filling with food.

Dinner progressed quickly after that – a lot of students were worried that Dippet would think of more people to thank – and the students were actually quite grateful to head up to bed, as a thick blanket of snow began to fall over Hogwarts.

* * *

"You mean you want me to break up Lily and Oliver?" Catherine O'Harty asked with a look of extreme confusion spread across her face freckled face. She was still in shock that James Potter, Sirius Black, and Cassidy Flemmings were actually talking to her. She was a Hufflepuff, and a fourth year, and they… Well, James Potter and Sirius Black were amazing. She wasn't sure about this Cassidy-girl though.

"Yes." Cassidy confirmed briefly, wanting to end the conversation before Lily arrived.

"But, you're her friends… Why would you want her to break up with her boyfriend?"

"Because, we don't think he's any good for her." Sirius offered bluntly. "Besides, my buddy James here would love to have another go – "

"What he means is, Lily and Oliver just aren't meant for one another, and they're to blind to realize this." James added urgently, elbowing Sirius in the side.

"But me? Why me?"

"Because we've seen those looks you give Oliver." Cass replied, getting rather irritated.

"Oliver? I don't like him! I mean, he's handsome, but he'd never…" Catherine began but faltered. She had never told anyone that she actually liked Oliver Field. It was almost like a death-sentence, since everyone thought he was a real duffer, even the Hufflepuffs.

"Yes, you do. And all we need for you to do is kiss him." Cass said urgently, knowing Lily would be in at any moment.

"While Lily's watching." Sirius added.

"I ought to go to class…" Catherine stood, knowing she'd probably be late for Charms.

"Will you do it?" James asked quietly.

"I s'ppose. Not because I like Oliver, only because I thought you and Lily would make a cute couple before you screwed everything up." Catherine replied, gathering her things and marching out of the Transfiguration classroom.

McGonagall marched in only moments later, and took no time in beginning the lesson. Cass frowned as she sat next Sirius, glancing at the door, before sending a worried look to Abby, who was sitting next to Remus. _It's not like Lily to be late…_ Cass ripped a small piece of parchment off her notes, and quickly wrote a note to Abby, which she tossed to her friend as McGonagall read through the textbook.

**_Why isn't Lily here? Seems a bit weird that she's late._**

Abby took no time to reply, and within seconds the wad of parchment was back on her desk, Abby's neat writing following hers.

_A little. I'm sure she's fine though._

**_I'm worried. We didn't see her at breakfast either._**

****

_Probably just slept in. We'll go see at break._

**_Fine._**

"Ms. Flemmings, would you like to inform the class about what you find so important that you must pass notes to discuss it?" Professor McGonagall asked sharply, looking up from the textbook.

"Err… No, Prof – "

"She's worried about Lily Evans, Professor, we haven't seen her all day!" Abby interjected, surprising both her friend and boyfriend.

"You may be excused then… to go check on her." Professor McGonagall offered, in a rare glimpse of kindness. "Both you and Ms. Scott… No, Mr. Potter, you may not accompany them." She added, as James's mouth opened in protest.

Cass offered a smug grin to James, just to annoy him, before gathering her things and shuffling out of the classroom with Abby.

The girls travelled back to Gryffindor Tower quickly, and much to their relief, discovered Lily, sobbing on her bed, clutching her old teddy bear and a picture of her little brother, Charlie.

"Tig? What's wrong?" Cass asked, filled with concern, dropping her stuff on the floor and rushing to her side, Abby following suit.

"I can't believe it…" Lily stuttered, tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Can't believe what?" Abby coaxed, a hand patting Lily's shoulder reassuringly.

"She's… She's not…" Lily began, before burying her face in her teddy bear.

"Who's not?" Cass asked with a sympathetic and patient smile.

"You've got to tell us if you want us to help." Abby added, brushing Lily's curls from her face.

"Petunia… She's not inviting me." Lily said through bursts of sobs. "I don't get to go to her wedding."

Cass's face contorted in a mixture of disgust, anger, and amusement. "You mean she's marrying that barmy old codger?" Despite Lily's obvious feelings of sadness, Cass couldn't help but stifle a laugh.

"You mean Vernon?" Abby offered with a disapproving look. Lily look absolutely amazed, convinced that Cass had gone off the wall.

Cass laughed. "Yeah, him. I mean, you've gotta find it somewhat funny. She's marrying some pathetic fat man who is just as grumpy as she is."

"I'm lost on how this is funny." Lily replied with a confused frown.

"As am I." Abby agreed.

"They can be grumpy gits together!" Cass sang happily, obviously in hysterics. A small smile crept up on Lily's face, and she felt ever so thankful that she had such great mates, even if they were insane.

"I'm not sure you're the one I should be worried about." Abby murmured with a smile as they watched Cass dance wildly about the dormitory, muttering to herself.

"Cass, is something wrong?" Lily asked timidly.

"NO! Why would you think that? Aside from the fact that Potter's in love with you and I've forgiven him because really he only got caught up in competition like any ordinary male would do, that I'm jealous of Abby and Remus and the way James stares at you, that I'm scared we're all growing up too fast, that I think I might fancy Sirius Black, I borrowed Lily's purple shirt and ripped it and got stains on it, I think I'm going to fail Charms this year, and I – "

"Did you just say you fancy Sirius Black?" Lily interrupted, a look of amazement combined with a sly grin spreading across her face.

Cass flushed a deep crimson, regretting having let her mouth ramble on like that.

"I s'ppose I do. But that's not my main problem. I mean, with Charms – "

"I can help with that." Lily offered.

"Potter…" Cass began.

"Lily will work on that." Abby offered. 

"The whole couples bit…"

"Sirius can help with that." Lily said with a sly grin.

"Lily's shirt…"

"It was an old one." Lily replied.

"And the grass stains were from when I borrowed it." Abby said with a smile.

"So now, your only problem is that you've got feelings for Hogwarts's most infamous bachelor." Lily concluded.

"At least I'm not oblivious to the fact that there's a lad who's absolutely in love with me!" Cass retorted, somewhat angry at the way Lily had phrased her conclusion.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lily asked incredulously.

"James is in love with you, and you love him, but you refuse to act on this! Why?!?" Cass could hardly contain herself.

"I don't know if I can trust him again." Lily replied, looking quite hurt by Cassidy's words.

Cass's anger broke, and she quickly leapt onto the bed to console her friend.

"I'm so sorry, Tig, that was totally out of line…"

"No, you're right. And I was out of line too." Lily replied softly. "I do still have feelings for James, but…"

"I know. I was just being green, wishing Sirius looked at me the way James looks at you… Green that you had it and you weren't reciprocating…"

"Green?" Abby asked, confused.

"Jealous." Lily explained, wiping tears from her face.

"Oh." Abby said thoughtfully. "I can see why you'd be green."

"Blimey our lives are fucked up." Cass commented, causing her two friends to laugh.

* * *

James yawned as he entered the Transfiguration classroom late one night, the last of CARIO to arrive for their meeting.

"You're late, James, and we have to figure out a dance routine for Easter." Cass complained.

"Well, now that Dippet's gone do we really have to worry?" James asked with a sly grin.

"Good point, Jimbo!" Sirius said with a screech of glee. "Can we go and play in the snow, pretty pretty please?!?!" Sirius whined, whimpering softly at James's feet.

"Go ahead. I want to talk with Lily."

"Don't bother." Cass replied irritably, having been in a bad mood all day. "She fancies you, but she doesn't think she can trust you."

"Cass…" Abby began, but faltered.

"What? It's true. I, personally, wouldn't want a romantic relationship with a guy who dated me just for a contest." Cass replied coldly.

"What's pulling your strings, Cass?" Remus asked quietly.

"Nothing, Lupin. Fuck off."

Cass turned angrily and left the room, leaving her friends flabbergasted.

"No to playing in the snow, then?" Sirius asked, breaking the silence amid the friends.

"I don't think so." James replied quietly.

"Damn. PMS always ruins my fun."

* * *

**Coming up next...**

- What DID Lily first say about James?

- What's up with Cass?

- How will the group celebrate Christmas?


	10. Problem Solved

**Sirius's Top Ten**

**Whoah, a lot of stuff happens in this chapter. If you need me to, I'll recap everything in the next chapter. Please, please, please R&R it motivates me to write. And feel free to post ideas!**

**J.K. Rowling owns every character, aside from ones you'll meet later.**

**Thoughts are in _italics._**

* * *

**Chapter 10: Problem Solved**

Cass returned from the CARIO meeting to see Lily sitting quietly on her bed, lighting one of Oliver's many roses on fire. Her eyes were slightly red and puffy, and her cheeks were streaked with tears.

"Tig? What's wrong?"

Lily smiled, she actually looked somewhat relieved.

"I've broken up with Oliver."

"What?!?!"

"Well, he was more of a rebound from James, and I wasn't that fond of him… Abby was right, it was mean to drag him on."

"So why are you crying?"

"I just feel guilty. He seemed so upset." Lily replied softly.

"Oh, he'll get over you Tig." Cass replied absent-mindedly, her mind swimming in thoughts. _We don't need CARIO anymore! Lily and James can finally get together! I ought to tell everyone…_

"Cass?" Lily asked, breaking her trail of thought.

"Yeah?"

"You alright. You seem… out there."

"Fine… Just excited for Christmas, I s'ppose. Hey, Tig, no matter what, we'll always be mates, right?"

"Best of mates." Lily replied with a smile, before frowning slightly. "Why?"

"No reason."

"I'm finally going home!" Abby squealed happily as she tossed her things into her bag randomly, most items missing her bag completely and flying across the room. Her Ravenclaw roommates only nodded or grunted in agreement, and so Abby decided to join her Gryffindor friends. Since she spent so little time in the Ravenclaw common room, she hardly knew anyone in her house, except David, the boy she had met at the Yule Ball. They were friends now, David hit on her constantly, but Abby only had eyes for Remus.

"What are we, Lils?" James asked, looking up from his notepad where he was jotting down Quidditch play ideas to look at Lily, who was sitting on a couch across from him, in the mostly empty Gryffindor common room. Everyone was upstairs packing, and James had decided this was the perfect opportunity to find out where he stood with Lily after the Ball.

"What do you mean?" Lily frowned, glancing up from her book.

"You and me. As two people." James replied slowly, his eyes hopeful. _Please…_

"We're friends, aren't we?"

James's hopes dropped. He was hoping they could go back to the stage they were at right after he had kissed her at the Ball. "I was thinking we could be more. I wasn't lying when I said I was in love with you." He offered quietly.

Lily sat up slightly, folding the top of the page she was at, and closed her book. She had been hoping James wouldn't ask something like this. But, expecting it, Lily had figured out how she would handle the situation.

Her mother had sent her a muggle magazine only a few weeks ago, and in it, there had been an advice column. One of the girls had written asking whether she should take back her ex-boyfriend, who had done something similar to what James had. Lily had been shocked – it was like her mother knew. The advice columnist had suggested 'probation' time. It seemed like a good idea.

"I have feelings for you too, James." Lily began, taking a deep breath. She could feel her cheeks flushing. "But, I'm not sure how I could trust you after the…"

She faltered, and James looked very downcast.

"So," she continued, James looking a bit more hopeful, "I've decided we're going to have a probation period."

"Probation?"

"Yeah. You show me what you'll be like as my boyfriend." She replied. _This is where I find out if he was lying. No lad in his right mind would do this if he just wanted to get a girl, he'd have to love me._

"So, you mean, a boyfriend without privileges?" James asked, wanting to clarify. He didn't like the sound of this 'probation' thing, but if it would get Lily to forgive him completely, he'd do it.

"Exactly." Lily replied with a bright smile. "For three weeks. Think you can handle it?"

"Sure." James replied, loosing his confused look for a confident, almost cocky-but-not-because-it-annoyed-Lily look. "Probation it is."

"Heya!" Abby said brightly as she entered the Gryffindor common room. She was pretty much an honorary Gryffindor, the other Gryffindors really didn't mind her being around any more. She spent all of her time in the common room, knew the passwords, slept over in the sixth year girls' dorm on weekends…

Lily looked up with a smile. "Hey Abby. You've packed?"

"Yeah, I can't wait to get home. But, actually, Lillers, I wanted to have a quick chat with you…" Abby replied, sitting down on the couch next to Lily, before giving James a get-lost-it's-girl-talk look.

"Say no more." James replied, slightly disappointed that he had to leave Lily, standing and going up the steps to his dorm. "I'll tell Remus not to come down just yet, although it'll be hard to stop him." He added with a wink toward Abby, who blushed slightly.

James gone, Abby turned to her friend, looking very serious.

"I'm worried about Cass." Abby said simply, quietly.

"Why?" Lily asked, slightly confused.

"Well, at our last CARIO meeting, she was really bitchy and rude to everyone. It's just not Cass. And she hardly talks to us anymore."

Lily nodded, having realized that Cass was becoming a bit distant.

"Do you think it's about how she fancies him?" Lily asked, jerking her head toward the boys' dorm, obviously meaning Sirius.

"Nah. I think it's something deeper." Abby replied.

"You want to know?" asked an irritated voice, both girls turning to see Cass looking at them, her eyes welling up with tears, her pretty face contorted in anger.

"Yes. We're your best mates, Cass. We want you to talk to us when you have problems, we're here for you." Lily said timidly. Both she and Cass had horrible tempers, and she knew from experience that it was horrible to be the cause of Cass's temper flares.

"You won't be much longer." Cass said coldly, tears beginning to stream down her cheeks.

"What?" Abby asked in disbelief.

"You won't be my mates much longer. I've moving. My family's moving… To America. I'm not coming back after Christmas." Cass then broke down and began to sob, and immediately Lily and Abby rushed to her side.

"Cass, why didn't you tell us? We'll always be your mates!" Lily said softly, hugging her friend.

"Is this why you've been acting so…" Abby paused, unsure of whether she should actually say the word again.

"Bitchy?" Cass finished. "Yeah… I figured that it would make saying good bye easier, but then I just missed having fun and chatting with you guys." Cass explained, through sobs. "I… I don't want to go!!"

"Maybe you could stay with me then." Abby offered, rubbing her friend's back.

Cass looked at her in disbelief. "Seriously?"

"Yeah, why not? I'll owl my parents." Abby said with a comforting smile.

Cass put a weak smile on her face, though tears were still streaming down her face. "Thanks Abs, and Tig. You're the best."

And with that, Cass pulled her two friends into a tight group hug. _Even if Abby's parents say no, Lily's right. They'll always be my mates._

"Gal-pals forever?" Lily murmured through a faceful of Cass's hair. She knew how cheesy it sounded, but she and Cass had been saying it since first year, and Abby had joined in this year as well.

"Forever." Abby agreed.

"Definitely."

As the last day at Hogwarts dawned, the feeling in the castle was relaxed. There had been no attacks from Voldemort, everyone was friendly with each other, and James and Sirius hadn't hexed Severus Snape or any other Slytherin all week. At breakfast, the group had resumed their cheerfulness, even Cass, who was delighted to hear that the Scotts, Abby's family, would be happy to take her in, and her parents had agreed, providing that she visit America in the summer holidays.

"This is exciting!" she gushed, stuffing her mouth with home fries. "I don't have to go to America!" Sadly though, because of the large quantities of food in her mouth, it was hard to distinguish exactly what she was saying.

Lily smiled, amused at her friend, although she was feeling a little 'green'. Now that Cass would be staying with Abby constantly, she was worried they might grow really close, and cut her from the group.

"It will be!" Abby agreed from across the table, where Remus had his arm wrapped around her waist contently. "But, you'll have to come visit, Lillers. It wouldn't be the same without you."

"Do I get to come too?" Sirius asked, stuffing his face like Cass.

"No." Abby replied. "No boys."

Remus faked looking hurt, James put on a puppy face, and Sirius burst into fake tears on James's shoulder. Peter, however, was sitting, staring off into space, somewhat in a trance. He and the Marauders were slowly growing apart, and with the addition of these 'females', it was happening quickly.

"Peter?" Lily asked, ignoring the other boys. "Are you alright? What are you thinking about?"

"Oh, nothing." Peter replied bashfully, returning to stirring his home fries in a circle on his plate.

James woke up on Christmas morning slowly, his hazel eyes coming into focus as his slipped his glasses onto his nose. He glanced over to see Sirius sprawled out on the bed next to him, snoring loudly. He grinned slightly, before finding a muggle marker, and writing 'I love Cassidy Flemmings!' on his forehead.

Sirius awoke as James capped the marker.

"Wake up, Padfoot! Presents!"

"Oh… yeah…"

For once, Sirius was not loud, or bouncy, in fact, he wasn't really awake. The two made their way downstairs to the sitting room, where a large Christmas tree graced the room. The Godric's Hollow house was decorated with muggle Christmas decorations, Mrs. Potter's newest obsession. She had taken a page out of Arthur Weasley's book, and found all muggle things fascinating _and_ trendy. There were twinkling lights on string; mistletoe hung everywhere, holly, ivy, and stockings.

"PRESENTS!!" Sirius cried, running up to the tree and disappearing in a cloud of falling wrapping.

James, however, looked for a certain present in particular, and found his present from Lily, wrapped in twinkling green wrapping, and tied with a pretty silver ribbon. He sat down in an armchair, and opened the note first. He smiled as he recognized her neat writing.

_Dear James – _

_Happy Christmas! In addition to your present, you said you wanted to know what comments you got from Cass and me when we met you. At the beginning of first year, you bumped into Cass, and so she said that you were "Weird. And he's such a prat." I agreed about the 'prat' bit, but I didn't really notice. I also added "He's rather fit though." And she agreed. _

_I hope this doesn't inflate your head too much, or we'll shorten your comments back to 'prat.'_

_Yours truly,_

_Lily._

As he finished, James was quite pleased, especially when he noticed that she had used Mrs. White's Magical Eraser on the 'Yours truly' bit. Pulling his wand from the pocket of his pajamas, he quickly used a revealing spell. The 'Yours truly' dissolved and was replaced with 'From.' He used it again, and the 'From' changed to 'Sincerely yours.' He muttered the spell again, and the 'Sincerely yours' was replaced by 'Love.' He tried the spell once more, but it didn't change. She had written 'love, Lily' originally.

"Prongs! Still just reading the bloody card?!?" Sirius asked in disbelief, tramping up to James's chair and trying to read over James's shoulder. James shut the note immediately, and slipped it in his pocket.

"Well, open it." Sirius said impatiently.

"Right." James untied the ribbon, and ripped the wrapping off, to reveal a thick book.

"Typical Lily." Sirius commented, before James flipped the book over, revealing a brown leather cover, with gold foil letters and an animated, hovering snitch beneath. The letters read out in elegant text: "1001 Quidditch Tips, Tricks, & Strategies."

"Sweet!" Sirius offered, changing his comment with a look of amazement. "That book was in Quality Quidditch Supplies! It cost like 200 galleons! I think she's forgiven you!"

"200 galleons?" James asked in disbelief, flipping through the pages in awe. "Sirius! The gift I gave Lily was only, like 10 galleons!"

"10 galleons is still a lot…" Sirius said slowly. James glared at his friend. "Well… yeah, you're… cheap?"

"More like a selfish, inconsiderate, cheap - "

"James! Come on, its just a present. Besides, I've got an idea that will make up for it…"


	11. Probation is Over

**Sirius's Top Ten**

**Whoah, a lot of stuff happens in this chapter. If you need me to, I'll recap everything in the next chapter. Please, please, please R&R it motivates me to write. And feel free to post ideas!**

**J.K. Rowling owns every character, aside from ones you'll meet later.**

**Thoughts are in _italics._**

**Hehehe. Anywho, quick recap, since I think Chapter 10 was kinda confuzzling.**

**Sirius and James make a bet that he can snog all of Sirius's Top Ten Prettiest Girls at Hogwarts. One of them is Lily. While getting to know Lily, James falls for her. She finds out about the bet at the Yule Ball, and is mad at James, dates Oliver Field, who has liked her from the beginning. James makes a apology to all the girls in the school, and especially Lily, so she forgives him, but doesn't trust him. James, Sirius, and Remus, along with Cass and Abby (Lily's friends) decide to break up Lily and Oliver, and form CARIO, pretending its a tap group. In the process, Abby and Remus reveal their feelings for one another, and are now a couple. Dippet is retiring as headmaster over Christmas. Lily admits she likes James, but doesn't trust him. Cass admits she likes Sirius, but begins to act bitchy because she has to move to America. Abby offers to have her stay with her family, so Cass stays. Lily and James are trying out a 'probation' relationship... We'll see how that goes... **

* * *

**Chapter 11: Probation is Over**

"LILLERS!!! WAKE UP!!!" Abby screamed into her friend's ear, early Christmas morning. Lily groaned in response, wondering why her parents had thought inviting Cass, Abby, and Abby's family to spend Christmas with them was a good idea. The girls had discovered, when they met their families on the train platform at King's Cross, that Lily's father had been good friends with Abby's father at Oxford, which had prompted several lunches and meetings, and finally, her parents had invited the entire Scott family to join them for Christmas.

"Not now, I'm busy." Lily muttered from her pillow.

"LILY!!!!!!!!!" a loud yell came from the hallway, before a small boy came bursting in, knocking the door open and jumping on to Lily's bed. He had the same, flaming red hair as Lily, but softer, blue eyes inside of Lily's vibrant green ones.

"Go away, Charlie. Go annoy Petunia." Lily muttered again, though she had lifted her head from her pillow as Charlie stepped on her leg. She brushed her hair from her face and rubbed her eyes.

"She's already left! She went to 'ernon's!"

"Vernon's?" Lily repeated, watching her very hyper younger brother nod vigorously.

"Tig…" Cass whined from the corner, where she was pulling a wool shawl over her shoulders. "Let's go open presents…"

"Fine." Lily muttered, pushing herself from the soft mattress. 

Charlie led the group downstairs, anxiously showing Lily how he had sorted everyone's presents into piles. Lily nodded slowly, yawning, and Mrs. Evans laughed.

"Good sleep dear?" 

"Yeah, mum."

"Open this one first, Lily!" Charlie said with excitement, bringing forth a small package wrapped messily in red wrapping, with a gold ribbon tied in a knot around it.

"Who's it from, Charlie?" Lily asked curiously, taking the present from him, and trying to flip open the tag with her tired, sleepy fingers. 

"Some guy named James." Charlie muttered, going off to retrieve more presents. Mrs. Evans raised a brow, and Cass and Abby giggled, sitting by Lily's feet on the floor. Lily smiled weakly. "He's a friend, Mum. The one I wrote you about."

"Yeah, but now they're on a trial relationship." Cass said with a mischievous grin.

"A trial relationship, dear? Isn't that a little cruel for the old chap?" Mrs. Evans asked in surprise.

"No." Lily replied indignantly, opening the note and reading it quietly.

**Dear Lils,**

**How are your holidays? Happy Christmas! Things here with Sirius are dull, so I hope you're enjoying yourself. I miss you! I hope you like your present.**

**Love, **

**James**

Abby and Cass watched her read it quietly, Abby, surprisingly able to pry her eyes from the pretty skirt Remus had given her, as well as a bag of heart-shaped chocolates.

"How is he?" Cass asked, holding the sweater Lily had given her up to her chest and imagining how it would look.

"Fine." Lily replied, neatly unwrapping the present, to reveal a small jewellery box, and a bag of Sugar Quills, Lily's favourite. Timidly, Lily opened the small, black, velvet box, to reveal a small square shaped stone that resembled a diamond, with a square shaped emerald on either side, all hooked on a silver chain.

"It's so pretty, Tig…" Cass said in awe, dropping the cheap-looking Beatles t-shirt Lily had given her.

"It is… It must of cost a fortune. I feel so cheap." Lily murmured.

"What did you get him?" Abby asked curiously.

"That book I was telling you about. But this…"

"Will look beautiful on you." Sirius finished, grinning as the girls gave him looks of disbelief.

"What are you doing here?" Cass demanded.

"Visiting my favourite ladies on this beautiful Christmas morning." Sirius replied, winking at Cass, who blushed, realizing how awful she must look. None of the girls had really woken up – Lily's hair was everywhere, Abby had bags under her eyes, and Cass, in addition to those other problems, was dressed in the shawl, and a large t-shirt. She looked like a slob.

"How did you get here?" Lily asked incredulously.

"On my broom." James said with a smile as he ducked into the room.

Charlie stood up from where he had been near the tree, staring at James and Sirius in disbelief and amazement. James felt his eyes and glanced at the young boy, smiling again. He was almost like a replica of Lily, aside from the whole gender thing, and his eyes, but James could tell he was a lot like her just from the look in his eyes.

"You two are WIZARDS?" He asked, his amazed look earning a laugh from his mother, who entered the sitting room again.

"Err… yeah." Sirius said, slightly scared.

Seeing Lily's mother, James smiled and quickly walked up to the woman. She had the same captivating eyes as Lily, although they were a more faded colour.

"Mrs. Evans? Nice to meet you. I'm James Potter, this is my friend Sirius Black. I'm sorry to burst in and ruin your Christmas celebrations, but – "

"Oh, nonsense darling! It's a pleasure to meet you. Michael! Come meet more of Lily's friends from school!" Mrs. Evans called happily.

Within seconds, a tall man appeared in the door, followed by two other adults, who James assumed were Abby's parents. Lily's father was built strongly, and had a smile across his face until his eyes fell upon the two sixteen-year-old boys standing in his sitting room with his daughter and her friends. Mr. Scott held a similar expression.

"Boys, Charlotte?" Mr. Evans asked in disbelief.

"They just dropped in to say hello, Michael dear, be polite."

"Oh, course." Mr. Evans replied gruffly, approaching James and offering a hand. He looked very stern, which surprised Lily. Of course, she hadn't really mentioned the whole I'm-hanging-out-with-lads-now-too-Daddy thing yet. "Nice to meet you…" Mr. Evans paused, waiting for James to offer his name.

"James, sir. The pleasure is mine." James said with a courteous smile.

Mr. Scott broke into a smile. "You're not this Remus chap I've been hearing about, are you?" he asked Sirius, who looked a lot more relieved now that at least one of the fathers was friendly.

"No, sir, Sirius Black, at your service."

Mr. Scott smiled and Mr. Evans offered a weak smile. Trying to cover up any awkwardness her husband was causing, Mrs. Evans spread a warm smile across her face. "Will you boys be joining us for breakfast? Girls, head upstairs and get dressed."

"Yes, Mum." Lily muttered, smiling briefly at James. She stopped it at that, deciding that easing her father into whole boys thing would be much nicer for everyone.

The girls headed upstairs, and Sirius, being infamous as a terrible guest, grinned broadly. "Perfect! Now we don't have to cook our own food!"

Both the Evanses and the Scotts looked quite perturbed, and James had flushed a nice shade of red, but Sirius and Charlie were oblivious to that.

"Can I try your broomstick, Mr. Black?" the young boy asked anxiously.

"No, sweetheart." Mrs. Evans answered for him. "But you can watch the boys, I s'ppose, just stay low so that the neighbours don't see…"

Charlie pouted, but Sirius led him toward the backyard, James smiling awkwardly at the parents before following.

"What a nice surprise, them coming to visit!" Cass gushed as the girls changed in Lily's room.

"You only think so because you fancy Sirius." Abby complained, pulling a soft blue t-shirt over her head.

"And you're only not happy because Remy isn't here." Cass retorted, pulling up her jeans. Abby stuck out her tongue.

Lily laughed, sitting on her bed in a deep green t-shirt and a pair of jeans, her normally messy curls straightened and pulled back in a ponytail. _It was nice of James to come visit, although I'll have to talk to him about this present._ Lily looked down at the velvet box she held in her hands. It was just too much.

A knock on her window startled Lily, and as Abby opened the blinds, she stifled a scream, surprised. James was grinning at her, floating comfortably on his broom, obviously quite pleased with her reaction. Abby laughed and opened the window.

"A ride, milady?"

"James! It's bloody freezing!"

"Then put your cloak on." Cass said reasonably, with a wicked smile.

Lily sighed and pulled her cloak from her trunk, sliding it over her arms before she carefully climbed out the window. Edging herself off the window ledge and onto the broom in front of James, she gripped the broom nervously. She wasn't the greatest at flying. In fact, it was terrifying for her.

James laughed. "Don't worry, Lils, I gotcha."

"You know I'm not fond of flying…" She muttered, her eyes widening as James steered the broom higher into the sky. "James! Go lower, the neighbours will see!"

"Don't worry… They won't see…"

"How can they not?!?" Lily replied. James could see she did have a point, they were at least fifty metres up into the sky. But what Lily didn't know, was that he had hung his invisibility cloak beneath his broom, preventing anyone beneath them from seeing the broom.

"Trust me." James replied, realizing afterwards that it was a bad choice of words. "Hey, Lils?"

"Hmm?"

"About my present… my Christmas present from you… It's great, but too much. I mean, 200 galleons?"

Lily laughed, slowly rotating herself on the broom so she was facing James. She ignored the fact that their faces we so close, and that James had his arms around her to control the broom.

"That book? It didn't cost 200 galleons!" she laughed, looking at James's puzzled look.

"But… Sirius said he saw it in Quality Quidditch Supplies… Cost 200 galleons…" James muttered incoherently, before Lily placed a slender finger on his lips.

"I found it in a muggle bookstore. The woman said some man had left it there and never came back for it, so she gave it to me for five quid."

"Oh."

"But I wanted to talk to you about my present from you, too… I mean, it's beautiful James, and I love it, but I think it's a bit too much as well."

"What, the necklace? No, Lils, it wasn't that expensive. Please keep it."

"Fine." Lily said softly, the cool winter wind blowing her hair into her face. Lily began to move so she could turn around again, but before she could, James's lips met hers. She felt her knees turn into jelly, and despite what she had said earlier about 'probation', she felt her resolve on that idea fading.

James broke away after a few moments, inwardly cursing himself for being such an idiot. _You're on PROBATION. She probably hates you now._ But it had felt so right.

"Lily, I'm so sorry, I don't know what – "

James was interrupted as Lily's lips joined his again, softly. This time it was his turn for his knees to turn to jelly.

"Why the hell have they been up there this long?" Sirius complained loudly, receiving dirty looks from Cass and Abby.

"Don't swear in front of Charlie!" Cass hissed, while Abby looked up at the empty-looking sky.

"What? 'Hell' is a swear word now?" Sirius replied dubiously.

"Well, no. But he's only ten and Mrs. Evans will find him using it and think that I taught it to him." Cass conceded.

"Fine." Sirius said with a smile. "Charlie?"

"Yessir?" The young boy had taken quite a liking to James and Sirius already, and saluted to Sirius as he was addressed.

"You will never use the word 'hell' in front of your mother." Sirius commanded.

"Or your dad. Or your sister for that matter." Cass added.

"Got it?"

"Yessir!"

Suddenly, Lily and James appeared out of thin air, hovering only a few feet from the ground, their faces flushed, Lily's red hair flying in the wind. Lily was sitting in front of James on the broom, and James had his arms wrapped around her and holding onto the front of the broom. Slowly, James's broom descended, and he helped Lily off the broom.

"Where'd you guys come from?" Cass asked in shock.

"Jimbo has a invisibility cloak." Sirius offered, as if it were common knowledge.

"Oh." Cass said, before glancing at Abby. "Looks like it was cold up there. Look at their cheeks. They're both beet red."

"I'm pretty sure it wasn't just the wind, Cass." Abby whispered with a sly smile.

"You mean, you think?" Cass sputtered.

"Yup. I think probation's over."


	12. The Missing Link

**Sirius's Top Ten**

**Well, this chapter actually stays on one topic pretty much the whole time. Yay me! Please, please, please review, since it motivates me to write… PLEASE?? There's actually a lot of swearing in this one, I might up the rating from PG to PG-13 gasp Let me know what you think.**

**J.K. Rowling owns every character, aside Cass, Abby, Oliver, Catherine, & Charlie.**

**Thoughts are in _italics._**

* * *

**Chapter 12: The Missing Link**

"Have you seen Remus this morning?" Abby asked curiously as she sat down next to James at breakfast, a week after the holidays had ended.

"No." James lied. "Have you seen Lily?"

"No." Abby replied shortly, inwardly laughing at herself for thinking that James might have been any help at all. Ever since that faithful day, Christmas at Lily's, James had been on cloud nine. The only thing he really talked about passionately, aside from Lily, was quidditch, and any other topics he remained oblivious to. It was annoying to Abby that all her friends were turning into lovesick puppies.

Cass had a new boyfriend from Hufflepuff, Amos Diggory. Sirius wasn't too pleased with this situation, and thus, had found a girlfriend of his own, a pretty girl in seventh year, though Abby didn't know what house she was in because all Sirius and 'that girl' did was snog. And then there was James, who was completely off the wall in ecstasy, and Lily, although she had somewhat kept her head, walked around in a dazed state.

Of course, she was in love with Remus, but all her friends coupling up too was annoying. The only person that hadn't hooked up, as far as Abby knew, was Peter, who had become increasingly distant, and was almost always off somewhere. Even Oliver had gotten together with that Catherine girl from Hufflepuff.

"You guys seen Patricia?" Sirius asked hoarsely as he plopped down next to James.

"That's her name!" Abby said in amazement, receiving weird looks from the two boys.

"Care to explain?" Sirius asked, though it didn't sound like he really cared.

"Lily and I couldn't remember what her name was. I mean, I don't even think I've talked to her." Abby explained, before receiving a glare from Sirius.

"Why do you need to talk to her?" Sirius sneered.

"Maybe she was just being nice, and trying to get to know Patricia! You should try it, all you ever do is snog!" Remus said angrily as he sat next to Abby, who was frowning at Sirius thoughtfully.

"I agree with Remus." Cass added, sitting next to James and yawning loudly.

"Well, since the slob's opinion matters so much…" Sirius began.

"Excuse me?" James asked, standing, Sirius following suit. "What makes you think you can insult your friends like this?"

"They're insulting my girlfriend, James." Sirius replied angrily, using James's actual name for once.

"More like your bed-mate…" Remus muttered.

"Care to repeat that, Lupin?" Sirius asked harshly.

"Stating the truth, nothing more. Well, I think I'm done for breakfast. Abby, can I walk you to Charms?" Remus asked, standing and gathering his things, ignoring the fact that he had just arrived.

"Sure. Want to come, Cass?" Abby asked, taking her bag from Remus as he offered it to her.

"Sure." Cass replied solemnly, since her darling Amos was away for a 'family affair.'

"So you're leaving me with him?" James spat at Cass, who ignored him and trudged from the Hall, following Remus and Abby. "Fine."

James stood and left Sirius sitting at the table, all eyes in the hall on him. It was unusual to see the Marauders and their lady friends fighting, and the entire scene had surprised many in the hall.

Severus Snape, long standing enemy of Sirius, walked up to Sirius at his empty table with a smug grin.

"Your friends finally realized what a prat you are?"

"Couldn't think of a new insult, Snivellus?" Sirius asked coolly.

"Meaning?"

"That's an insult Evans would use with James. Too stupid to come up with a new one, eh?"

"Yeah, well now that he's with that mudblood Evans, its much more appropriate for you. Despite the fact that she's a mudblood, I must say that 'prat' is a rather good insult, and has been underused."

"Fuck off Snivellus. At least I have friends."

"Not any more." Snape replied, before turning on heel and leaving the hall.

* * *

"Mr. Potter?" Professor McGonagall asked from the front of the classroom, a slip of parchment in her hand.

James looked up from his Transfiguration work curiously. "Yes, Professor?"

"Headmaster Dumbledore would like to speak to you."

"Alright." James muttered, gathering his things, and leaving the classroom. It was probably about that prank he and Sirius had pulled on the train ride back from Christmas. _Speaking of Padfoot…_James wondered where his friend was, since he hadn't shown up for any of their morning classes, lunch (which was exceptionally odd), or Transfiguration. _Probably off snogging Patricia._ He thought bitterly. But he hadn't seen Lily all day either, and she definitely wasn't off snogging Patricia. 

"Ah, Mr. Potter." Dumbledore greeted warmly, as he met James in the corridor, right by his office.

"Professor! I mean, Headmaster?" James greeted, not sure exactly how to address the newly appointed headmaster.

"Professor will be fine, James."

"Oh. You wanted to see me, Professor?"

"Yes. I am under the impression that you and Ms. Evans are in a relationship of some sort. Am I correct?"

"Yessir." James slurred his words to sound just like Charlie, but of course, Dumbledore didn't get the joke.

"I am also under the impression that you have been quite worried about her today."

"Well, I haven't seen her at all, sir, which is a bit worrying, yes."

James could picture Sirius's face if he had been listening to this conversation. He, himself, could not remember a time when he had been so polite, except when in the presence of Mr. Evans.

"Well, Ms. Evans informed me that she left you a note, but in any case, I will inform you of the reasoning behind her disappearance. There has been an attack by Voldemort in London. A large one, and several muggles were killed. Apparently a family member perished."

Immediately images of Mr. and Mrs. Evans filled his head, images of Charlie, even scowling Petunia, and of course, Lily. She would probably be heartbroken.

"Do you know who died, sir?"

"I'm afraid not, the owl she received last night was very non-specific. I do know she will not be returning for a couple of days."

"Well, thank you for telling me, Professor." James said with a weak smile, trying to contain the anger within him. If Voldemort had killed any of Lily's family, and caused her pain, he would curse the man into oblivion.

* * *

James returned to Gryffindor Tower, and immediately made his way up to his dormitory, and searched the area around his bed, finally discovering a small piece of parchment, crumpled up under his bed. Unfolding it gently, James was quite pleased to see Lily's neat handwriting, and no tear stains.

_James – _

_There's been an attack by Voldemort in London – apparently someone in the family was killed. Mum wasn't specific in the letter about who died, so I'm quite sure it wasn't anyone too close. At least, I hope it wasn't. I know for a fact Charlie's fine, he signed the letter beneath saying 'Say hi to James.'_

_Hi._

_See you when I get back!_

_Love, Lily._

Tucking the note in his pocket, he returned to the common room, much more relieved, only to hear Abby and Cass yelling at one another, obtaining the attention of the entire room. They stood by the fire, staring defiantly at one another, and James had never seen Abby look so angry, fiery, or disgusted. He had never seen Cass so flushed in the cheeks, or so violent.

"It's none of your bloody business!" Cass screamed, looking as though she might tear Abby apart.

"It is my business, since I'm supposed to be your friend!" Abby replied, just as angrily.

James glanced about the common room for help. Remus was at a prefect meeting, Peter was off somewhere, and Sirius was sitting in the midst of it, watching with enthusiasm. He had a piece of parchment that he was waving wildly above his head as it flashed in large, bright letters, 'Take Her Down, Abby!'

"Well, you're not acting like one! You're supposed to be supportive, and NICE!"

"I'm supposed to be supportive when you need support, and I am not supposed to be supportive when I don't support what you're doing."

"Yes, you're supposed to shut your trap and be happy for me!"

"I'm afraid I can't do that!"

"Then go back to Ravenclaw, bitch."

"You don't even have to ask!"

Abby turned on heel angrily and stormed from the common room, her face flushed and contorted with anger. James could only hope she remembered the password for the Ravenclaw common room, since she often forgot.

"Cass?" he asked timidly, approaching her even though she looked like she was going to tear something, perhaps him, into pieces at any moment.

"Fuck off, Potter."

"Do you know about Lily?"

"'Course I do."

"Have you written her?"

"Been kinda busy, Potter."

"Are you going to?"

"Fuck. Off. Potter." Cass said slowly, as if she were trying to get James to comprehend what she was saying. Then, with a lethal glare at Sirius, who quickly disposed of his sign, she trudged up the stairs and into her dormitory, shutting the door loudly behind her.

"Thanks for the help, Sirius." James muttered, looking at his friend with disapproval.

"Oh, don't give me the 'Evans look'. Just because you're dating her doesn't mean you have to be her."

"What's that supposed to mean? If you didn't realize, our friends were fighting and you did nothing to break it up."

"You didn't do squat either."

"I was sort of looking for back-up from a certain someone!"

"Oops. Well, I'll be off, Evans."

"Sod off, Sirius."

"Gladly."

* * *

**Dear Lils,**

**Life here without you has gone out the window. Just after two days without your peaceful character, everyone is at each other's throats. Cass and Abby had a huge row in the common room, Remus and Sirius aren't speaking… Even I'm not speaking with Sirius, and of course, the girls won't either. Something about you holds the rest of us together, Lils, you're what links us together, and we need you back. I need you back.**

**I hope you're all right about the loss of whomever. I know it's probably tough, and I wish I could be there to help you out. I haven't heard from you, so I'm assuming you're busy with preparations for things…**

**Write me if you have the time, perhaps I'll come see how you're doing?**

**Love,**

**James.**

**P.S. – I say 'hi' back to Charlie, as well as: 'Have you gotten your Hogwarts letter yet?'**

* * *

Lily was quite startled to see Brash, James's owl pecking importantly on her window early the next morning, and dragged herself out of bed to open the window. Brash soared about the room for a moment, perhaps trying to build up the suspense surrounding what he was carrying or just to show off for Lily's owl.

"That's nice Brash, please come down now." Lily muttered, inwardly laughing at how Brash reminded her of how James used to be, or rather, still was. The owl took its time, before landing gracefully on Lily's bed, and sticking out its leg regally as she untied the letter and unfolded the creased parchment.

As her soft green eyes scanned over the page, they widened in surprise, and she immediately grabbed a quill and some ink to reply.

_Dear James,_

_I'm very sorry to hear things have gone awry at Hogwarts, but I've attached some instructions to get things back to normal while I'm gone. You have no idea how terrified I was when Dumbledore told me about the attack, I was almost certain that my family was dead. But, it turns out that it was some cousin of Vernon's who actually died, so Charlie, Mum, Dad, and even Petty are fine._

_Oddly enough, Petty still had Mum write me to come home, since she wanted to show Mrs. Dursley (Vernon's mum) how the entire Evans family feels for her loss. Charlie and I were rather disappointed that it wasn't Vernon's sister, Marge, who perished. I know it sounds mean, but she really is horrible. Charlie says that the name 'Barge' would be much more appropriate._

_ I'm trying to be cheery, but I really feel awful. It's estimated that over 100 people died, James! The muggles are saying it was an explosion started by a gas leak, but to know the truth, that really, it's some man who wants to kill people like me, it's terrifying. I wish you were here. Perhaps you could come to comfort me at Laurel's funeral? I'll see if I can get my mum to owl Dumbledore._

_Charlie hasn't gotten his letter yet; his birthday is in two weeks. He's very excited for you to teach him how to play Quidditch._

_Attached are my instructions on getting everyone happy again --- Don't question, just do._

_Love, Lily._

In a hurry, Lily finished her rather long 'note', rolled it, and tied it to Brash's leg, before the great owl swooped out of her room. She watched the creature's figure grow smaller and smaller, disappearing into the bright blue sky.

"Lily, come down, Vernon's coming soon."

"Yes, mum." she called, before moaning to herself. "A beautiful day wasted."

**Coming up:**

- What are Lily's instructions, and will James be able to pull the group back together?

- Will James get to go to Laurel Dursley's funeral?


	13. James's Task

**Sirius's Top Ten**

**Yet another chapter that stays completely on one topic! I'm getting good! Hehehe!**

**J.K. Rowling owns every character, aside Cass, Abby, Oliver, Catherine, & Charlie.**

**Thoughts are in _italics_, Lily's writing is in _bolded italics_, just for now, so it's easier for people to understand which bits are James's thoughts, and which bits are Lily's writing.**

* * *

**Chapter 12: James's Task**

**_Step One_**

**_Aim: To get Abby and Cass on speaking terms._**

**_Find Cass alone somewhere, and tell her that you think she's beautiful, and that she's perfect. Do it, James, trust me._**__

James stared at the parchment in disbelief, readjusting his glasses as if to check if he had actually misread what Lily had wrote. But there it was, his girlfriend, who he loved, wanted him to flirt with her best friend. He would have wrote back saying she was crazy, and he refused to, but the final sentence had a huge effect on him. _Trust me._ Trust her like she trusts you, even after all this crap.

"Hey, Cassidy." James said with an awkward smile as he took a seat next to her on a couch in the Gryffindor common room later that afternoon. Cass grunted in reply.

"Listen, I know that Lily's your friend and all, but there's something I have to tell you." He paused, mostly for dramatic effect. James was an excellent liar, he had years of experience, having lied to get out of sticky situations with Sirius. Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, he wasn't sure. "I think you're beautiful… Perfect…"

"Potter!" Cass looked at him in disgust. "You have a girlfriend, who happens to be my best friend! I didn't think you could sink this low!" She stood and turned to him, her eyes lethal, and James was certain he was going to be slapped.

Luckily, as if on cue, Abby came in through the portrait hole with Remus, glancing coldly at Cass, who felt her eyes and swerved around to catch Abby.

"Scott, I need to talk to you."

"I'm not sure I want to talk to you, Flemmings." Abby replied, clinging to Remus's arm.

"It's important. It's about Lily… and this scumbag." Cass persisted, gesturing to James, the 'scumbag.'

Abby's face softened, and the lethal look she had been giving Cass was flipped onto James. "What did you do, Potter?"

"Come upstairs, we'll talk." Cass answered for him. Abby gave Remus an apologetic peck on the cheek, before following Cass up the stairs, and into the sixth year girls' dormitories.

James took Lily's parchment from his pocket, unfolded it, and read the next line.

**_If you've done everything right, Abby and Cass should be talking about you and me in my dorm. They will both be extremely mad at you. No worries, I'll sort it out when I get back._**

James groaned. _Damnit, why didn't I see that coming?_ Remus gave James a questioning look, but it was also obvious that he was quite disappointed that Abby had deserted him. James offered an innocent grin before looking back to Lily's parchment.

**_Step Two_****__**

**_Aim: Get Sirius and Remus talking again._**

**_Have Sirius just chat with Patricia about anything for a few moments, and have Remus come in while they're chatting._**

"Hey, Moony?"

"Yes?" Remus asked, settling down in an armchair next to James, and bringing a book out of his pocket.

"What the hell is that?"

"What? My book?"

"Yeah."

"It's a pocket-sized version of Standard Book of Spells, Grade 6."

"Pocket-sized?"

"It's a muggle idea."

"Ah… Moony?"

"Yes, Prongs?" Remus sounded somewhat irritated, as he always did when he was reading and people were interrupting him.

"Why were you like that with Sirius?"

"You mean when I was talking about Patricia?"

"Insulting Patricia would be a more accurate description, but yeah, then."

"I was merely defending my girlfriend, who made the accurate observation that Sirius is doing is snogging her."

"Siri, can we just chat?" Patricia asked as she sat next to him at the Gryffindor table the next morning, pushing herself off him. Her soft brown eyes looked at his lips distrustfully, but Sirius didn't notice, and was confused about why Patricia didn't want to snog.

Little did he know that earlier that morning, James had bewitched Patricia from beneath his invisibility cloak, so that only she saw cold sores all over Sirius's lips, which would obviously stop her from snogging him.

"Chat? Sure, about what?" Sirius asked, still very confused.

"Life in general? Pranks? Anything! Tell me more about yourself." Patricia offered desperately.

"Err… Alright."

James glanced into the Great Hall quickly, checking to make sure his, rather Lily's plan was working. Sirius and Patricia were chatting, and Remus and Abby were only a few steps behind him. Remus paused in front of James who still had his head stuck in the doorway.

"James? You alright?"

"What?" James pulled his head from the Great Hall to face Remus, and smiled sheepishly.

"I'm fine."

"Alright then."

The three entered the Great Hall, and James could see the look of shock on Remus's face when they sat down next to Sirius and Patricia, who were actually having a decent conversation, not snogging each other's brains out.

Breakfast progressed from there, Cass joining the group and sitting with Abby, the two girls chatting amiably (although ignoring James), and Remus being polite and joining in conversation with Sirius and Patricia. Since Sirius was still mad at him, James was left without anyone to talk to, and desperately missed his Lily.

"Well, I've got Divination, so I ought to go. Bye Siri!" Patricia said with a grin, giving Sirius a nice, long kiss before bouncing off with her friends.

Remus took a deep breath, and James could feel it coming.

"Padfoot, I'm sorry." Remus said slowly, and quietly. Abby looked over to her boyfriend, and nodded her head.

"Yeah, me too, Sirius."

"What?" Sirius asked through a mouthful of toast.

"I'm sorry. We're sorry. About what we said about Patricia." Remus clarified with a smile.

"I'm sorry too. You guys were right about our relationship, and I just overreacted. I wanted to have a girlfriend too, since everyone was coupling up, and I felt left out. I didn't really think about Patricia's feelings." Sirius said sombrely, for once.

Abby smiled. "I think that means, we've all forgiven each other."

"Aside from the scumbag." Cass reminded Abby, glaring at James.

"Hey! What has Jamesie done?!?" Sirius asked, both stunned and curious.

"He fancies me! He told me I was beautiful, and perfect, and he has a girlfriend!" Cass said angrily.

"Who happens to be one of her best friends!" Abby added.

"Well, really, you could just take that as a statement of fact." Sirius said with a grin, causing Cass to blush slightly, and James to stare at his friend in disbelief. Had Sirius forgiven him?

"But…" Cass stuttered, she too, surprised that Sirius was defending James.

"Did he actually say he fancied you?" Sirius persisted.

"No…"

"Then, obviously, it was just a statement of fact. Right, Jimbo?" Sirius asked with a mischievous grin.

"Yup. Purely a statement of fact. Besides, I love Lily. I wouldn't do that." James said with a smile, fumbling with his pockets and retrieving Lily's parchment from his pocket.

**_Remus should have had enough sense to apologize to Sirius, Abby should have too. Sirius should have apologized back._**

****

**_Step Three_**

**_Aim: Get Sirius to talk to you again_**

**_Just let him defend you when Cass accuses you of fancying her. He'll be in a good mood and come to your rescue._**

****

_She's so right! How does she know us so well?_ James wondered to himself, now that the table had fallen into a happy, and comfortable silence.

"Whatcha readin' there, Jimbo?" Sirius asked curiously looking up from his food.

"I wrote to Lily… About how we were all fighting, and she gave me instructions to get us all happy again." James said slowly, offering out the parchment to Cass, who took it and read it briefly.

"Wow. How does she know us so well?" Cass asked aloud as she passed the parchment on to Sirius who looked at it curiously.

"I dunno." Sirius replied dumbly, staring at the parchment in disbelief as Abby snatched it from his hand.

"She's got us all completely figured out. And she was right about everything." Remus commented, reading over Abby's shoulder.

"Well, well done James, you did it." Abby said with a smile. "But you forgot to read this last bit."

Being kind and respectful of his privacy, she didn't read the last bit of the note aloud, and passed it to James, despite Sirius grabbing at it and whining playfully.

**_I'm sure you did it James, I knew you would. It's very non-prattish of you to care so much about everyone else fighting. Which is one of the reasons I'm in love with you._**

**_Love, Lily._**

James stared at the parchment in disbelief, his heart doing flips. Lily had never actually said 'I'm in love with you' or 'I love you' and yet, here it was, written on parchment so he could keep it forever. A huge grin plastered itself on his face, and it only grew wider as Lily's owl landed gracefully amid the plates of food littering the table, a note attached to her leg.

**_Dear James, _**

**_I'm sure you've completed your task now, and everyone's happy again. My mum wasn't going to let you come, but Petty wanted you to (I know, strange!). Not just you though, everyone I consider a friend. She says despite the fact that we're all 'freaks of nature' it'll make a good show to have so many people show up for Laurel's funeral. So, the whole gang's invited, including Sirius, as long as he promises to behave and act like a muggle. Dumbledore's agreed with everything, so check and see who wants to come. Petty really needs to know so she can tell and impress Mrs. Dursley, who is here with Vernon and making my life a living hell. _**

****

**_I, personally am not sure how bringing loads of people who didn't know Laurel will impress the stupid woman, but Petty says that it'll show 'what a caring, and non-freakish family' she comes from. Charlie and I are bored out of minds, so it would be great if you could come, any of you. The funeral is on the thirty-first, three days from today. I'm going to be so behind when I come back to school, you better have been taking notes for me, Mr. Potter!_**

****

**_Tell Abby and Cass that I'm very disappointed they were fighting, and write back._**

****

**_Love, Lily._**

****

James smiled as he read the letter from his girlfriend, before passing the letter to Abby, and adding hopefully: "Anyone have the notes from Lily's classes for the past four days?"

"No…" Sirius said with a frown, leaning across the table to read the letter. "Ha! You're in trouble!"

"Shut it, Padfoot, and help me. I'm going to need your notes from Transfiguration and Charms, Remus; your notes from Arithmancy, History of Magic, and Care of Magical Creatures, Abby."

"What about Herbology? None of us have it with her." Cass asked, looking up from the letter.

"Fuck!"

* * *

**I really hope you're all enjoying this, but I'm going to put it on hiatus until I get a few more reviews, just to make sure TeenTypist and I aren't the only ones still reading this. So, please, review! Also, review and tell me whether Sirius and Cass should get together. I like the idea, but at the same time, its kinda cheesy if they all end out together. And if you do, you might find out in the next chapter…**

- Who goes to Laurel's funeral? What happens there?

- What happens when Abby starts realizing Remus's monthly absences?

- Will Lily ever get back to school?


	14. Adventure on the Tube

**Sirius's Top Ten**

**Look at how nice and long this chapter is! And there's a reason why: the story is off hiatus, but because I have exams for the next week and half, it'll be at least that long before a new chapter is up. Sorry, but if I don't do well, my parents will take away my internet connection, and then where would we be? So wish me luck! Thanks to all my reviewers, it made me feel really special when I saw I had new ones.**

**J.K. Rowling owns every character, aside from Abby, Cass, Charlie, Oliver, Catherine, & anyone else not from the books. **

**Thoughts are in _italics._**

* * *

**Chapter 14: Adventures on the Tube**

"I am SO going!" Sirius gushed, prancing about the Gryffindor common room like a ditz, before shrieking loudly. "Ohmigod! What am I going to wear?"

"Black?" Cass suggested, looking up from one of Lily's muggle magazines, trying to find some examples of formal muggle wear.

Pretending she was addressing him, Sirius smiled daintily. "Yes, muffin?"

Cass opened her mouth to argue but Abby quickly intervened. "Stop it, Sirius. She's not in the mood."

"PMS again, eh?" Sirius asked with a smile and a wink.

"Do you even know what that means, Padfoot?" James asked with a bored tone, looking up from his quidditch magazine.

"Period Madness Sickness?" Sirius asked wildly, galloping in circles about the group.

Abby quirked a brow, almost certain that he was insane. Quite a few eyes were on the group, which was now thought to be very exclusive, and consist only of 'cool' people. Abby had laughed when she first heard a group of second-years talking about the requirements to get into the 'Marauder Posse.' Apparently it involved several tests, including jumping on broken glass, buying them all expensive presents, and winning a quidditch game against James and Sirius, which was pretty impossible.

"Abs, you going?" Cass asked, still reading her magazine and ignoring whoops from Sirius as he continued to gallop.

"Yeah. I'll have to make sure that someone gets my notes…" Abby began, before Cass giggled, and pointed to a picture in a magazine. The picture was of a skinny girl, with platinum blonde hair and dark roots, and at least an inch of eyeliner around her eyes. The girl's dress began very low on her chest, and only went down to her thighs… high up on her thighs.

"I hope Tig doesn't want us to wear stuff like that!" Cass laughed, causing Sirius to glance over their shoulders.

"I wouldn't mind." He offered with a hopeful grin, receiving disapproving looks from the two girls.

"Shut up, Padfoot." James said quietly, glancing up from his magazine again.

"Who put you in a bad mood?" Sirius whined, looking upset.

"He just misses his girlfriend." Peter squeaked from the corner, causing the entire group to look at him in shock and amazement.

"Wow, Peter… That has to be the most you've said to me since Christmas!" Sirius gasped.

The rest of the room had blank faces too. Peter had slowly drifted from the Marauders, hardly speaking to them unless to ask for help from Remus, and always off on errands or hanging out 'alone.' James, Sirius, and Remus had stopped calling him 'Wormtail' and hardly woke him up for their full moon adventures. **[A/N: Serves him right! Stupid poo!]**

"Well, I was just…" Peter began to ramble, his cheeks flushed, before gripping his arm in pain. Immediately James stood and came to Peter's side.

"You alright?" He asked with mild concern. _He's your friend… you should be worried… really worried._

"Fine…" Peter muttered, looking up to see that the group was looking for an explanation. "I err… fell yesterday and cut my arm, it's infected."

"Can I see, Peter? I might be able to help, I want to be a healer at St. Mungo's when I graduate." Abby offered, standing and approaching him.

"No! No! I'm fine. I have to go." Peter said hurriedly, before darting out of the common room.

"That was weird. Oh well, do we know if he can come to Lily's?" Sirius asked, ending the awkward silence that had plagued the group after Peter's departure.

"He can't." Remus said weakly, joining the group. He looked very pale, and was clutching his stomach. Of course, only James and Sirius knew why. Abby immediately joined his side, kissing him softly on the cheek.

"Oh, Remy, you look awful." She said sympathetically as she wrapped her arms around Remus's shoulders. "Are you going to be able to come?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine." Remus said with a weak smile.

James and Sirius glanced worriedly at one another. The full moon was going to be the day they were to return to Hogwarts… _If something happens, and we get held up…_James thought to himself quietly, beginning to worry. _There are tons of muggles where Lily lives…It could be serious trouble._

Cass, however, was oblivious to the fact that Remus was a werewolf, and turned into one every month during the full moon. She yawned softly, watching Abby and Remus quietly. "Do you know why Peter can't come?"

"He says McGonagall won't let him because his marks are too low. He can't afford to miss class." Remus explained, still feeling sick but enjoying the attention he was getting from Abby nonetheless.

"Alright, so it's me, Sirius, you – Remus, Cass, and Abby who are going. Right?"

"Yup." Cass agreed, offering James some parchment. "Obviously you'll want to write your girlfriend. Telling her that there are five of us coming, and how much you loooove her." She teased.

James blushed, and the group laughed.

_Dear Lils, _

_We've talked it over and there are five of us coming, me, Remus, Sirius, Abby and Cass. Peter can't make it because McGonagall says he can't miss any class. Dumbledore has arranged for us to floo from his office to the Leaky Cauldron, where he hopes you can pick us up, or at least give us instructions to get there some other way. He won't open up your house to the floo network because he's worried about Voldemort and his anti-muggle stupidity._

_That's about all, we're flooing tomorrow morning, around nine o'clock. Hope you can make it._

_Love, James._

"I didn't bug you about YOUR 'family affair'!" Cass's angry voice echoed through the hallways of Hogwarts, causing most of the school to pause, and curiously wait for the other half of the conversation.

"MY family affair was DIFFERENT!" Amos Diggory replied, at the same volume.

"How so?!?" Cass retorted.

"MY family affair WASN'T some stupid funeral for a muggle!" he replied, instantly regretting wording it in that particular way. He had meant to say something along the lines of _'a muggle that you don't know!'_

"Got a problem with muggles, have we?" Cass spat, her eyes filled with fury. "Well then I think I've got a problem with YOU, Diggory."

Without thinking, Cass flung her book bag at Diggory, narrowly missing his head, and turned on her heel and swept from the hallway and toward her next Charms class, Abby chasing after her awkwardly after collecting Cass's bag from the floor, and struggling under the combined weight of her own bag and Cass's.

Sirius snickered, having watched the whole scene from afar, quite pleased that Cass was finally done with Diggory… _ONLY because she's my friend, and I care for her._ He added mentally, although James did not miss his pleased look.

"You fancy her, don't you Padfoot?"

"Fancy who? Flemmings?"

"Yeah."

"No, I care for her well-being as a friend." Sirius muttered quickly. "We have to get to Charms, don't we?" he asked, quickly changing the subject.

"Since when do you care if we get to class on time?" James asked slyly.

"Since you agreed to get your school-freak of a girlfriend notes from each class." Sirius replied smartly, causing James to pale, and throw himself recklessly up the stairs, towards Charms.

_Dear James,_

_There's a schedule protest in near the Leaky Cauldron, so my parents and I won't make it through to pick you up at the Leaky Cauldron. You'll have to walk to the tube station (Abby can explain what the tube is, her dad's a muggle), and take the trains to Swiss Cottage station, where mum and me will pick you up there at nine o'clock. Abby should be able to figure out how to get there._

_Love, Lily._

The next morning, five Gryffindor sixth years trudged out of the common room and down the stairs slowly, puffy-eyed and yawning. Apparently it would take them at least a half hour on 'the tube', and since Lily was meeting them there at nine, they would have to go earlier than expected. Cass's Muggle Studies teacher had been thrilled when she discovered that Cass, a pureblood, would be taking 'the tube', and had asked her to write a three-foot essay on what the experience was like.

As they reached the Entrance Hall, Sirius missed the last stair, and not fully awake, fell forward and knocked Cass to the floor with him.

"Geroff me!" Cass yelled from beneath Sirius, her voice muffled by Sirius's bag.

Hesitantly, only to annoy her of course, Sirius slowly pulled himself off her, before Cass threatened to 'knee him where it hurts', and she was definitely a good position to do so.

"I suggest you heed her warning, Mr. Black." Dumbledore said softly behind them, causing the group to turn and straighten up out of embarrassment. Cass flushed a nice shade of red, amazed she hadn't noticed the headmaster's presence, and embarrassed she had said such a thing around him. Dumbledore, however, just smiled, his eyes twinkling. "Are you ready to join Miss Evans?"

"Yes, Professor." Abby smiled timidly.

Dumbledore led the group up to his office, lighting a fire in his fireplace magically before retrieving some floo powder from a jar on the mantle.

"I am sure you all know how to use floo powder, so who's first?" he asked cheerily, offering out the jar.

"I'll go." James offered with a tired smile, finding it too early to be cheery. Taking a pinch of the mysterious powder, he tossed it into the fire, causing the flames to turn green and roar brightly. Not hesitating, James stepped into the fire, and clearly stated his destination. Closing his eyes as the world around him began to spin, James hummed softly to himself until he found himself landing on the floor of the Leaky Cauldron. A few wizards looked up for a moment, before returning to their business.

Seconds later, Sirius popped out from the fire, knocking James over, who hadn't moved. Cass soon joined the tangled pile of bodies on the floor, murmuring something about it being 'the second bloody time I've been beneath Sirius.' Things only complicated as Abby joined the pile and Cass tangled the group up further, trying to get near Sirius's face to slap him for saying something about it hopefully not being the last time she was beneath him. Remus emerged from the fire only seconds later, and was tripped into the pile by Cass as she swiped at Sirius. The end result did gather attention from wizards in the pub. Legs and arms were intertwined and sticking out at odd angles, and it took poor Tom, the new owner, about five minutes to sort them out.

"Thanks again." Abby said politely, her cheeks tinted pink, as she carried her bag out the door.

James, with Abby's help, had transfigured their trunks to look more like muggle suitcases, so they received no weird looks as they hefted large suitcases down the street, to a sign that was labelled 'Underground.'

"What the hell is that?" Sirius asked as he gasped for breath, having lugged both his suitcase, and Cass's (to make up for his previous comment) the past seven blocks – through the slushy snow.

"The tube." Abby replied simply, as if it were easy to understand her answer.

"Sadly, Abs, you're with a bunch of purebloods, you'll have to expand." Cass reminded.

"Don't you pay attention in Muggle Studies?" Remus asked incredulously. "It was on the exam last year. The 'tube' is the slang term muggles use for a system of underground trains that transport people around London."

"Knew I got that question wrong." Cass said with a grin.

Abby led the group down the stairs, and immediately made her way to a map, which the others could not understand. It was covered with dots and many different coloured lines, each of the dots being labelled.

"Alright, so we'll have to take the Piccadilly…" Abby muttered quietly to herself, causing Remus to smile proudly. He loved it when she did that – mutter to herself as she figured something out – plus she was the only one who knew what they were doing.

"Right, so we have to buy our passes…" Abby left the group for a moment and walked up to a rectangular box, and began punching a few buttons as James and Sirius watched curiously.

"Muggle contraption?" Sirius whispered, gasping slightly as bits of paper began emitting from it.

"S'ppose."

Once Abby had helped the entire group past the ticket booth, she led them down another flight of steps and on to the platform.

"Whoa, it's exactly like a train… but underground!" Sirius commented, surprised that muggles had come up with such a good idea.

"I'm glad you actually listened to my explanation, Padfoot." Remus muttered sarcastically.

"You know me, Moony, I like to figure things out on my own." Sirius replied gleefully as the train swept into the station.

"If only it didn't take so long for you to do so." Cass said with a sly grin, causing Sirius to drop his things and begin tickling her.

"GET ON THE TRAIN!" Abby roared, standing in the doorway as a beeping sound began, signalling that the door would be closing. Kicking their stuff onto the train, Sirius grabbed Cass by the wrist and yanked her in, just as the doors closed. The train car was silent, everyone gaping silently at the odd group.

Cass and Sirius were surprisingly obedient for the rest of the train ride, getting off promptly as they switched lines. Everyone was quite shocked at Abby's outburst; surprised the kind girl even had that sort of fire in her.

"Are we there yet?" Sirius whined as they stepped off their fourth train. Abby glared at him, before adding proudly, "Yes."

"Wahoo!" Sirius cheered triumphantly, causing many people to turn and look at Sirius with a confused expression, and Abby to glare at him again.

With newfound determination, the group quickly made their way up the stairs and out of the station. James checked his watch. It was nine thirty, so they were late.

A pair of hand covered his eyes, and he pushed them off with an annoyed manner. "Stop it, Padfoot, we're late and it's your fault, if you hadn't stopped for sweets twice… What are Lily's parents going to think? We're so late – "

"They're going to love you!" Lily said with a laugh, hugging James as he spun around. Abby shrieked and yanked Lily out of James's arms, pulling her into a big hug with Cass.

"You didn't tell me Evans wore stuff like that at home!" Sirius scolded, eying Lily with a mischievous grin.

James frowned, before realizing that she was dressed rather… oddly for January. She had a short, pleated white skirt on that ended mid-thigh, with a white top and a black jacket pulled over top. Lily's hair was straight, and pulled into a ponytail at the back of her head. She looked absolutely gorgeous.

"Why don't you wear stuff like that at school, Evans?" Sirius asked playfully as he hugged Lily.

"So I don't have to deal with boys like you." She replied, returning the hug. "I was playing tennis."

Aside from Abby, the group looked blank.

"Muggle sport. I played indoors, with an old friend." Lily added with a smile as James's mouth opened for a question.

"Shall we go then? I'm freezing!" Sirius muttered. Lily laughed, and led them to her father's car, where she introduced Remus and reintroduced the rest of the group. Mr. Evans was once more very serious and cool towards the boys, but lightened up enough to give Abby and Cass hugs.

An hour later, the group arrived at the Evans house, which, much to their surprise was filled with happy people. Charlie was thrilled to see Sirius and James again, and immediately asked them to show him some more quidditch moves before dinner. Neither had brought their broom, and James, wanting to spend some time with Lily, declined while Sirius agreed to anyways.

Cass and Abby led Remus on a tour of the fair-sized house, allowing Remus to have his fun and point out all the muggle contraptions he had read about in books.

James trailed Lily about the house, sneaking his arms around her slyly, before quickly retracting them when Mr. Evans entered the room.

The day passed by uneventfully, the group spending the day outside building a snow fort and making snow angels. James was surprised at how happy the Evans household was, but it made since, considering that they didn't really know this Laurel person anyways, and the only person who seemed to care was Lily's sister, Petunia, who arrived later that evening.

Her eyes were red and blotchy, she had been over at Vernon's attempting to console Mrs. Dursley, as well as impress her. Introductions had been awkward, and became even more so when Petunia began to flirt with Remus, who she found quite attractive, despite his 'freakish-ness'. Abby, of course, had not taken well to this concept, and had stormed off; angry with Remus for not telling Petunia he had a girlfriend. Remus had dropped very obvious hints, but Petunia paid them no mind, and disgusted Lily by doing so – Petunia did have a boyfriend.

"Well, night Remus. I'm sure Abby won't be mad in the morning." Lily said with a reassuring smile, after helping him wash Abby's dessert from his hair in the bathroom. He smiled weakly and nodded, before disappearing into the room Mr. Evans had set up for the boys, complete with a lock on the outside, so he could lock them up at night.

The next day was the funeral, and the mood in the household changed dramatically. Lily woke the boys up at eight, dressed in a simple black dress that brushed her knees, her hair curly again and falling over her shoulders.

Already there were people downstairs, large people, which James thought looked like balloons. Lily had forbid both him and Sirius from mentioning that analogy to anyone, aside from their group, and Mr. Evans, who found it quite funny and lightened up a bit toward the boys.

Lily and Abby helped the boys into their muggle suits, tying their ties and adjusting their jackets, as they constantly reminded the boys what not to do.

"And remember, don't mention Hogwarts or wizards at all. No quidditch, Voldemort… ANYTHING!" Lily repeated as she tied James's tie for the second time.

"I know, Lils, I know." James replied, shifting uncomfortably in his suit. Lily smiled at him, pushing herself up to kiss him softly on the lips.

"I know, but I don't want to ruin this for Pet. She really wants to impress Mrs. Dursley."

"Which one's that?" James asked, glancing about as the two walked downstairs together.

"That one, with the mauve suit on." Lily muttered through clenched teeth, gesturing toward a particularly large person in the corner of the room, who Petunia was talking to, desperately.

"That one? I thought that was a man!" James frowned, and Lily hit him playfully on the shoulder.

"James! Don't say that!"

By the time all the Dursleys had arrived, the house was becoming quite squashed, and so the six hid out in the kitchen, helping Mrs. Evans make more and more snacks. Eventually, Petunia managed to push her way through to the kitchen, where she looked at Lily with a half-crazed smile.

"Mrs. Dursley wants to meet you. Bring your least freakish friend." She ordered, before pushing her way back through the crowd.

Lily looked at her friends, who were all waiting expectantly. Easily, Abby, whose dad was a muggle, was the least 'freakish', but Lily was tempted to bring James or Sirius, just to make things interesting.

"James? Do you want to come meet Mrs. Dursley?" she asked, giving Abby an apologetic smile. "It might make things a bit more interesting before these people leave for the actual funeral."

"Now Lily, your sister volunteered to have it here because with all the stress the family must be going through, it would be a hassle for them to plan it."

"Whatever you say, Mum."

"This is my dahling sister, Lily Marie." Petunia said with a glazed, I'm-just-peachy smile. Lily cringed, at both her sister's attitude and the mention of her middle name.

"It's nice to meet you." Lily said, offering a hand to Mrs. Dursley and using the same tone as Petunia. "This is my dahling friend, James."

James's face contorted as he smothered a laugh, and shook Mrs. Dursley's pudgy hand politely. "It's a pleasure to meet you." He added, in the same tone as Lily.

Petunia glared at the two, who were both now sporting contorted looks on their face, trying not laugh.

"Lily attends a boarding school in Scotland." Petunia offered, Mrs. Dursley quirking a brow.

"And what are you studying, Lily Marie?" Mrs. Dursley asked elegantly.

"Err… at the moment, the works of Shakespeare… Calculus!" she added brightly.

"And Quantum Physics!" James added with a hearty smile.

"Quantum Physics? I'm impressed." Mrs. Dursley said with a small smile. "Did you study Quantum Physics in your high school, Petunia?" she added with a disapproving look.

"Sadly, my high school didn't offer that as a course." Petunia said with a forced pleasant look.

"Tragic. Oh well, I doubt you would have comprehended it anyways." Mrs. Dursley said with another pleasant smile, as if she wasn't insulting Petunia to her face. "Is James your boyfriend, Lily?" she asked pleasantly.

"Yes. We began dating at Christmas." Lily said with a smile, quite liking Mrs. Dursley despite her appearance.

"Oh, how lovely! I'm sure you know, Verny and Petunia met last summer." Mrs. Dursley said with her constant pleasant look, though the way she mentioned Vernon's and Petunia's meeting as though it was it was the worst day of her life.

Lily smiled brightly, realizing that James was probably bored out of him mind. "Well, it was absolutely lovely to meet you, Mrs. Dursley, but – "

Several shrieks interrupted her, and Lily was sure she would have been trampled to death by Dursleys moving out of the house shrieking if James hadn't pulled her against him. She smiled at him gratefully and he grinned, before she made her way to the kitchen, where Sirius was trying to scoop a dungbomb out the window.

"SIRIUS BLACK!" Lily screeched, as Sirius tossed the dungbomb into a plastic contained and sealed the lid, smiling innocently the entire time.

"Yes, Lily dearest?" he asked in the same innocent tone.

"What the hell were you thinking?!?" she yelled angrily, ready to kill Sirius on the spot.

"I didn't do it, I swear. I had one in my bag, and one of the those fat tubs of lard looked through it and found it!" Sirius explained, his voice raised only so Lily would listen.

"ARG!" Was Lily's only reply, before she turned and went outside, where Petunia was desperately trying to get the Dursleys to calm down.

"What was that wretched smell?" Mrs. Dursley demanded angrily. Petunia looked helpless and at a loss for words.

"I apologize, my friend Sirius brought a rotten piece of food with him for some reason, and the plastic container it was in opened. That's what the smell was. Sirius isn't the best at remembering to throw things out." Lily finished, adding a weak smile.

"Oh, it's alright, Lily dahling!" Mrs. Dursley gushed, patting Lily softly on the back. "No harm done, and we should get to the church anyways, to honour - " she paused for moment "Laurel's life. Petunia, I'm sure you will pay to have our clothing cleaned since you were in charge…"

The funeral was boring for Sirius, and he spent the whole time trying to distract Cass from looking at the open casket, which was making her nauseous. Everyone knew Cass had a very weak stomach, and she looked pretty green.

"You okay there, Flemmings?"

"Back to last name terms, are we, Black?" Cass replied shortly, and quietly as Mrs. Dursley sobbed loudly.

"I s'ppose we are! You noticed!" Sirius replied brightly, keeping his voice abnormally low.

"You think I ignore you, Black?"

"Well, aside from Lily and Abby, you're the only girl in our year that I haven't dated, or snogged. I was under the impression that you didn't know of my eligibility."

"Eligibility? For what?" Cass snorted, causing several Dursleys and Lily to give her disapproving looks.

"For being snogged."

Cass coughed loudly to hide her laughter. "I'm afraid I'm still oblivious, Sirius m'dear. Besides that, you aren't eligible."

"How so?"

"Patricia?"

"Oh right. Her."

Abby yawned softly, trying not to think about how badly she had to go to the bathroom. Unlike Remus, she had decided it was too rude to leave right during the homily, so she sat awkwardly, worrying about other things… Like Remus. _He's been getting sick a lot lately…At least once a month…_But nothing was wrong, he'd be sick for a few days, and then be fine for the rest of the month. _But it's like clockwork. He's sick the same time each month._

"Lillers?" she muttered softly to Lily, who sat next to her.

"Hmm?" Lily murmured boredly.

"Do you think there's something wrong with Remus?"

"What do you mean?" Lily asked nervously. She knew the truth about Remus, he had told her last year to explain how he was always sick certain days when they were supposed to do prefect rounds. She didn't mind, he was such a great guy the other days of the months, and in fact, she felt badly he had to carry that burden. But Remus accepted it, and she admired him for his strength.

"I mean, he's constantly sick, the same time, every month. He'd mention it if it were something serious, wouldn't he?"

"I'm sure he would. You're probably just paranoid 'cause you're bored out of your mind."

"Yeah… I s'ppose."

Remus returned from the bathroom shortly after that, looking pale but a lot less awkward than Abby. He smiled slightly at her thoughtful face.

"Whatcha thinking about?" he whispered playfully.

Abby smiled weakly, but answered honestly. "You." Before Remus could show any happiness or pride at this comment, she continued. "Remy, if something were wrong, like if you were seriously sick or something, you'd tell me, wouldn't you?"

The smile on Remus's face faded, which caused Abby's suspicion to increase.

"Is there something wrong, Remy?"

* * *

**Next up, after the exam break...**

- Will Remus tell Abby about being a werewolf?

- How will Abby take it when she does?

- What happens when James meets an old flame of Lily's?


	15. Lily's Chaser

**Sirius's Top Ten**

**Firstly, for my own pleasure, I've decided to answer a few questions found in reviews for this story. It's not that I don't read them, but when I write new chapters I honestly forget to answer questions, so here we go!**

**Amythestpony – **Nope, I am not British. I'm actually Canadian, but I went on an exchange to England last year and lived there for a month, so I picked up some British slang. I do have the WB on cable, and I watch Charmed, it is quite good, though I'm more of a Gilmore Girls person.

**TeenTypist _– _**_I just have one other request. By any chance, could there be less hardcore cussing?_ I'm trying! I have to apologize for some chapters, when I'm in a bad mood there tends to be more swearing… Anywho, you can see I tried not to use as many swear words in Chapter 14, but sometimes they will be necessary.

**Thanks again to all my reviewers, you really made me feel special, and you should now too, since I'm writing this a few hours before an English exam!**

**Everything is J.K. Rowling's except the plotline, Abby, Cass, Oliver (who might be coming back gasp) and Charlie.**

* * *

**Chapter 15: Lily's Chaser**

"Why are you keeping secrets from me, Remus?!?" Abby screamed angrily, standing at the foot of the stairs in the Evans household, her face flushed with anger.

The rest of the group remained silent, Sirius, James, and Lily quite aware of what he was keeping a secret, while Cass was oblivious.

"They don't concern you!" Remus yelled back, though he knew it was a weak reply, and a total lie. **[A/N: hey, it rhymes!]**

"How does it not concern me, Remus? You're my boyfriend, and important things need to be set out in the open at the very beginning!" Abby replied, her voice dropping slightly, her face still contorted with anger. _Doesn't Remus trust me? Does he think I'm too stupid to understand his problems?_

Remus was silent, his face expressionless. _If I tell her, she might hate me forever. If I don't, she'll hate me forever._

"Did you know that if you farted consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb?" Sirius asked, breaking the awkward silence but not Abby's gaze. She was looking directly at Remus, hoping he would say something, and he was doing his best to avoid her eyes.

"Fascinating, Sirius. I didn't know that, and apparently, there are a lot of things I don't know. Excuse me, I think I'll go to bed." Abby said as pleasantly as possible, though her words stung Remus. She nodded to her friends, and ignoring Remus, walked into Lily's room, slamming the door behind her promptly.

"That didn't go over well, Moony." Sirius commented, with a sympathetic smile.

"I'm sure she'll be… more approachable in the morning." Cass offered hesitantly, choosing her words carefully. "She probably just – "

"No, I think I'll go back to school early." Remus interjected with a weak smile. "Lily, do you think your dad would drive me to the Leaky Cauldron?"

"I'm not sure, I'll go – "

"Sure, I will, Remus." Mr. Evans offered as he opened his bedroom door, having been awoken by Abby's yelling. "I know how Scott women can be."

Remus left within ten minutes, and the group reconvened in the parlour, sipping hot chocolate and discussing the day's events. Lily and James shared a couch, Cass took an armchair, and Sirius was sitting cross-legged on the floor, begging Cass to let him sit with her.

"Please?" he whined, looking up at her eagerly with puppy eyes.

"No."

"Pretty please?"

"No. Sirius, we kinda have to discuss something important here." Cass replied firmly, with a great deal of annoyance.

"What's more important than me?!?"

"Abby and Remus?" Cass suggested sarcastically, before kicking at him randomly with one leg.

"Oh. Right. What happened with them anyways?"

"Well, during the funeral, they were talking…" Lily began, only to be interrupted by Sirius.

"When?"

"During the boring homily-bit." James explained, ignoring a look from Lily.

"Anyways, Abby asked if Remus that if there was something important, if he'd tell her, and he said it depended on how important." Lily continued.

"Strike one against Moony!" Sirius interrupted again, with a mischievous grin.

"Abby, of course, was pretty miffed, so she ignored him the whole way home and just blew up at him now." Lily finished, ignoring Sirius.

"I can understand why he didn't tell her though – it could totally ruin their relationship." James commented reasonably as he put his arm around Lily and pulled her close.

"It'll ruin their relationship if he doesn't." Sirius said wisely, surprising Lily and James.

"Did you just say something intelligent, Padfoot?" James asked, looking shocked.

Sirius put on a face similar to James's and gasped, covering his mouth for a moment. "I did, didn't I?"

"What hasn't he told her?" Cass asked, breaking the conversation with a confused frown.

"You mean you didn't tell her, Lily-kins?" Sirius asked, loosing his fake shocked look for a real one.

"Well, no, you guys told me not tell anyone…" Lily muttered, looking very embarrassed and ashamed.

"Told me what?!?" Cass asked angrily, wanting to understand.

"Well…" James began, wondering whether he should explain or wait for Remus to. "Remus… When he was young… He was bitten by a werewolf…"

"So he is one? A werewolf, I mean?" Cass asked, her face unreadable.

"Err… Yes." James offered slowly.

"I thought so."

"What?!?" Lily, James, and Sirius all looked quite surprised.

"Well, I mean, he's been disappearing every month for the past six years, I'm surprised Abby didn't notice."

"She did." Lily muttered quietly. "That's why she asked Remus if there was anything important. I think she suspects him."

"Poor Abs." Cass said solemnly, staring at the floor, lost in thought.

The group went to be shortly after that, James kissing Lily's forehead at the foot of the stairs.

"Do you have anything important to tell me, Lils?" James asked looking serious though his tone gave him away.

"James, don't joke about that sort of thing!" Lily whispered, pushing herself away from him to hit him playfully on the arm. "But I do want to tell you something. When I was playing tennis the other afternoon – "

"PRONGSIE! Get in here! I want my bestest buddy!" Sirius whined loudly from downstairs in the boys' room.

"I'd better go before he wakes up everyone else. Sweet dreams!" James said with a wink, before jogging down the stairs to shut Sirius up.

The front door opened, and Mr. Evans came in, looking tired but content. Lily smiled as she saw him, and hugged him.

"Thanks for taking Remus, Daddy."

"It wasn't a problem. He was a gentleman, m'dear." Mr. Evans replied with a smile, hugging his daughter close.

"Daddy, I think we need to talk about James." Lily said softly, breaking them embrace and looking into her father's expressionless blue eyes.

"What about him?" he asked gruffly, moving to the kitchen to have something to drink before bed.

"Well… Do you think you could be more friendly toward him?" Lily asked hopefully, following her father and purposely keeping her voice low.

"I'm trying, Munchkin." Mr. Evans said softly, turning to face Lily and watching her silently. She was still his little girl, and it seemed like only yesterday he was teaching her how to ride a bike, how to tie her shoes… And suddenly, here she was, his little 'Munchkin', sixteen years old with a wizard boyfriend and attending a boarding school he'd never even visited! "But I still liked that Mario chap better."

"Daddy!" she grinned, whining playfully, before hugging him again tightly. "Night, Daddy." She said softly, turning and leaving the kitchen and joining Cass and Abby upstairs.

"Night, Munchkin." Mr. Evans murmured to her retreating back, looking thoughtful.

* * *

"Wake up!" Lily whispered softly in James's ear the next morning, leaning over him as he slept. She was quite cheerful and still her in flannel pyjamas, with her hair into braids.

James moaned softly and rolled over, knocking Lily's arm and causing her to fall on top of him. This, of course, woke James up with a start, and Sirius laughed, returning from the bathroom, his toothbrush stuck in his mouth.

"Couldn't you have locked the door?" he asked playfully, as Lily pushed herself off James, who looked very frazzled, his hair sticking up in random places.

"We weren't doing anything like that, Sirius." She replied coolly, adjusting her pyjama shirt, which had ridden up slightly when she fell.

"Uh uh." Sirius replied with a sly grin, walking over to his trunk to get out clothes for the day. "Whatever you say, Lily-kins, but I have to change. So get out."

"Fine. I s'ppose I won't ask you if you'd like to stay a day longer then." Lily said teasingly, walking for the door, which was quickly blocked by Sirius.

"What do you mean, stay a day longer? You mean, not go back to Hogwarts?" Sirius asked anxiously, keen on anything that would keep him away from classes more, even if it only was another day.

"Well, there's a party at the church my mum goes to. There's going to be a band, dancing, food…"

Sirius's eyes glazed over at the mention of food. Lily's mum could really cook, but he was sure that there were muggles out there who could do better.

"Anyways, Mum wants you two to come, if you'd like to, of course." Lily said finished, ignoring the fact that Sirius had stopped listening a while ago.

"I'll come!" Sirius volunteered eagerly.

"Me too, I guess." James said with a smile, before Lily left the two so they could change.

* * *

Later that night, the full moon in the sky and Remus safely at Hogwarts (they had received an owl from him earlier in the afternoon), Mrs. Evans led the five out to her car, laden down with food for the party. With a total of eight people, including Mr. Evans and Petunia, and enough food to feed an army of one hundred, there wasn't much space, and much to Sirius's delight, Cass sat on his lap, while Lily sat on James's.

"Watch your hands, Black." Cass muttered grumpily.

"What?" Sirius asked innocently, raising his two hands.

Cass just glared at him, wishing that it was Abby who was sitting on Sirius's lap. Sirius definitely wouldn't have tried to feel Abby up – Remus would kill him. Catching her friend's unhappy look, Abby gave a weak smile, the first smile her friends had seen all day.

"Don't worry, Cass, I'll sit on him on the way back."

Cass smiled thankfully, but that left a damper on conversation. Sirius was pretending to be hurt, therefore refusing to talk to Cass or Abby, and Abby was once more silent in thought. Lily and James were muttering to each other softly, which was angering Mr. Evans, who was too busy watching Lily and James to return Mrs. Evans's conversation. Cass wasn't a fan of Petunia, and therefore refused to talk to her.

Everyone was quite relieved when they arrived at the Evans's church, although they were immediately given food to carry in, and were treated similarly to packhorses by Mrs. Evans. James was last in tow, carrying several platters with assortments of fruit, and was surprised at how homey the old church could be. The main hall was relatively small, but well lit, with wooden floors and off-white walls. Circular tables were set up on the edges of the room, leaving plenty of space for the dance floor and the band in the centre. Lining one of the walls was a long table covered in food, which Sirius was already visiting.

After dropping off his platters at the food table, he joined Lily in watching some of the older couples dance. Lily had a smile plastered across her face as she watched, probably because she actually knew some of them.

"Wanna dance, milady?" James asked with a grin.

Lily smiled. "Maybe in a minute or two."

"Alright, but there are plenty of pretty birds out here, the offer might not last long." James said cockily, looking about the room. His statement was quite true, there were several girls around, and one of them was running at their table like she was insane.

"LILY!" The girl screamed, the rest of the people in the room ignoring her, as if they were used to it. Lily looked at the girl, completely bewildered, before a happy smile spread across her face and she stood, embracing the girl who was bouncing up and down happily.

"I can't believe you didn't tell me that you were home from boarding school!" The girl gushed, clinging to Lily, who was now looking flustered and embarrassed.

"And suddenly, Mario comes home from playing tennis with you, and I was like, why didn't she ask me?!?"

James frowned at the mention of a 'Mario' and looked to Cass, who mouthed something he couldn't quite decipher.

"It's very nice to see you, Maria. I've missed you!" Lily said with a bright smile, finally pulling herself out of Maria's grasp and facing the table. Abby, Cass, and James were staring at her expressionlessly, and even Sirius had stopped eating to watch too.

"Oh, Maria, these are some of my friends from school." Lily said, gesturing to the quiet table. "This is Abigail Scott – "

"Hullo." Abby offered sombrely with a weak smile, standing to shake Maria's hand softly.

"Cassidy Flemmings – "

"Nice to meet you." Cass said with a fake smile, not bothering to stand. The girl was easily a bit too bouncy and hyper for Cass's taste.

"Sirius Black – "

Sirius took Cass's example and nodded with an I'm-so-cool smile, before beginning to stuff his face again.

"And my boyfriend, James Potter."

James stood at his introduction, giving Maria the same smile Cass had. "Nice to meet you, Maria."

"A boyfriend, Lily?!?" Maria shrieked with excitement, taking James's hand and looking at it almost as if it weren't a hand, and something foreign.

"Err… yes…" Lily said with a very confused smile, beginning to share the same opinion of Maria that her friends did.

"Mario will be so jealous! When he came back from playing tennis with you, he was almost certain that you two would get back together!" Maria gushed, oblivious to the frown that had spread across James's face.

"Yes, well, I do have a boy – "

Lily was interrupted as a single red rose was shoved in front of her face, and she turned to see a tall Latino boy, with dark tanned skin, shaggy black hair, and deep brown eyes. Both Abby and Cass looked shocked, the boy was gorgeous! If this was the Mario that Lily had told them about, she had left out an important bit of information.

"He's so fit!" Cass whispered to Abby, her eyes glued to the boy who was staring at Lily lovingly. Abby grunted in agreement.

"Hola, mi amor. ¿Desee bailar?" (Hello, my love. Want to dance?) He asked softly, gazing into Lily's eyes. James stood there, looking very angry, and fighting his instinct to punch this guy in the face. He didn't know much Spanish, but having vacationed there once or twice, he knew what the words 'Hola' and 'amor' meant.

"Actually, no, Mario, thank you." Lily said quickly, flustered by Mario's actions. At the tennis courts he had just been chummy and fun to hang out with, and suddenly he was back to trying to get her to date him again?

She had met Mario when she was eight, long before Hogwarts. Maria, his twin sister, had been her best friend, and so, the two grew up together, both secretly liking one another. When she left for Hogwarts, they grew apart, but each summer they would grow close again. In the summer after fourth year, he asked Lily to be his girlfriend, and they attempted a long distance relationship while she was at Hogwarts. It didn't really work out, because when she came home after fifth year, Mario had a new girlfriend. Of course, once he realized she was back, he had dumped his new girlfriend and chased after Lily again. This holiday had been different. He had seen her in the street and offered to have a game of tennis, Lily's favourite sport.

"¿Por favor, hermoso?" (Please, beautiful?) Mario asked, flashing a smile.

"Err… Mario, this is my boyfriend, James." Lily said with a hesitant smile.

Mario's face dropped as he looked at the boy who stood behind Lily. James was several inches taller, and towering over both him and Lily. He didn't look very pleased, and had an arm around Lily's waist.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, James." Mario offered a hand, clearing his blank look.

James nodded slightly and shook Mario's hand forcefully. Lily, sensing James's anger, found his hand and squeezed it gently.

"You don't mind if I dance with your beautiful girlfriend, do you?" Mario asked, dragging Lily from James and onto the dance floor before James could reply.

James watched silently as Mario forced Lily about the dance floor, Lily looking very annoyed and talking to him loudly, while he muttered things softly in Spanish.

"Don't worry, Jimbo." Sirius said with a grin, winning James's attention. "She's in LURVE with YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Sirius sang, as James slumped into his chair.

"Yeah, don't worry about Mario, he's been chasing after Lily since they broke up right after fifth-year." Cass said with an encouraging smile.

Abby was watching Lily and Mario silently as Mario forced Lily across the dance floor, his hand riding down her back. _Bad move Mario._ James was turning to watch his girlfriend too, just in time to watch Lily push herself from him, looking absolutely disgusted, and Mr. Evans approaching them on the dance floor.

"Get off me, you pig!" Lily said angrily as she pushed off him. _Bad comeback, Lils._ She could hear James's voice in her head, and it was right. And after all the practice she had gotten with James and Sirius over the years! But Mario had been running his hands all over her.

"What? Lily, my love, we are just dancing!" Mario protested, looking shocked.

"We're dancing like we're dating, and we're NOT dating. Besides that, I don't remember you asking me to dance in the first place." She retorted, more pleased with this comeback than her last one.

"Excuse me, Lily, are you alright?" Mr. Evans interrupted, looking very distastefully at Mario, stepping between them slightly.

"We're fine, Mr. Evans." Mario said with an innocent smile that could rival Sirius's.

"I don't think so. Let's go have a chat with your mother." Mr. Evans said, looking quite mad, and leading Mario over to a large Spanish woman who looked equally displeased.

"Not one of your best comebacks, Lils. You 'pig'?" Said a playful voice.

Lily swerved around to see James, and immediately threw her arms around his neck, pulling him close.

"I'm sorry. I was going to mention playing tennis with Mario… He was so friendly and just that when we went, and…"

"Shut up, Lils, you're ruining the mood." James interrupted, allowing Lily to realize that they were now swaying slowly to a fast song, while everyone else danced fast two-steps or bounced around wildly. "Besides, that, I know."

Lily smiled up at James lovingly, and hugged herself tightly to him again.

"It's not bloody fair." Cass commented from their table, to no one in particular. "How come Lily has two guys, both wonderful in my books, and I have none?"

"You have Amos." Abby suggested, though she too was pretty jealous. Plus, she missed Remus, despite the fact she was still very mad at him.

"And you'll always have me, sweetheart!" Sirius added playfully, finishing off his fourth plate of food.

Cass snorted, so Abby took charge.

"Dance with me, Sirius?" Abby asked politely, standing up as Sirius nodded, before being yanked onto the dance floor by a muggle boy who had been admiring her all night.

"That would be my dance partner!" Sirius complained, watching as the boy swept Abby across the floor, having introduced himself and now making her laugh.

"Don't think Remus'll be too pleased about this." Cass commented loftily from her chair.

"Well, technically the two are on 'off-time', but you're right. So I'm enlisting you as my helper, to make sure they don't…" Sirius trailed off, at a loss for words, but yanking Cass onto the dance floor with him and twirling her around.

Surprisingly, Sirius was very light on his feet, and Cass enjoyed being swirled around the room, laughing. During the slower songs, Cass and Sirius would try hard to remain serious as they stared at Abby and 'the boy', making sure nothing that would upset Remus happened.

Abby would catch their looks and glare at them, knowing what they were doing, but at the moment, the last thing she wanted to think about was Remus. She didn't plan on there being a Remus-and-Abby coupling when they returned to Hogwarts, especially since Remus couldn't trust her. _Besides, Tom is nice._ A voice in her head pointed out. Abby was looking at Tom quietly. He was tall, sturdy, with dark brown hair and soft blue eyes, and smile on his face as their eyes met. _Tom is nice. But he's not Remus._

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**Coming up…**

- What will happen between Remus and Abby when Abby and the group return to Hogwarts?

- How will Amos try to win Cass back? Will he succeed?

**Now I am actually serious about no more chapters until exams are over (this time next week). As addicted as I am to writing this story and getting reviews, I really need to study. So, until next Thursday at this time, TOODLES!!**


	16. Lessons Learned

**Sirius's Top Ten**

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**I'm BACK! And a day early! I still have my math exam tomorrow, but there's no real way to study for math, is there?**

**Alright, major poll here: Should I end this fic with the group finishing off sixth year, and make a sequel with the seventh year, or just leave it at that? Need input, everyone!**

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**Everything is J.K. Rowling's except the plotline, Abby, Cass, Oliver (who might be coming back gasp) and Charlie... You know this by now, don't you?**

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**Chapter 16: Lessons Learned**

Was the fact that Tom was different from Remus such a bad thing? Abby honestly didn't know. Tom, whom she had met at the church dance thing last night, was a real sweetie. He had promised he would write to Abby, by sending letters through Mrs. Evans, and asked if he could see her in the summer. She had said yes – she liked Tom, and it wasn't like she was 'in' a relationship with Remus.

The group was silent as they all sat on a single bed on the Night Bus, now used to the lurching of the bed. Lily was lying against James, who was fiddling with her hair fondly. Cass had a muggle magazine and was reading intently, Sirius was off planting dungbombs under a bed on the third level, and Abby was staring out the window.

"Ooh, look, a 'is your boyfriend your soul mate' quiz!" Cass said aloud, eager to end the silence, and looking at Lily expectantly.

"What?" Lily asked, catching Cass's look and look slightly worried.

"Well, obviously you've got to do it with me. You're the only one here with a boyfriend… Unless Sirius here has something he wants to tell us…" She added with a playful smile as Sirius rejoined them, and bringing the group (aside from Abby) into fits of laughter.

"Huh?" Sirius frowned, before a grin spread across his face, and he began to laugh too. He didn't know why they were laughing, but it was always better to laugh with everyone else, even if they were laughing at you.

"First question, Tig. Do you know your boyfriend's favourite sport?" Cass asked, reading off the quiz and looking at Lily expectantly.

"Is there anyone who doesn't know James's favourite sport?" Lily asked, looking slightly irritated. She really didn't want to do this quiz. Sure, she wanted to know whether James was her soul mate, but if it said he was, she wouldn't believe it, since it was just a magazine quiz, and if it said he wasn't, she'd be upset. It would happen that way, she had no doubt.

"You know what I just realized, Jimbo?" Sirius asked, saving Lily from the quiz for the moment, feeling surprised he himself had noticed.

"Hmm?" James asked absentmindedly, twirling one of Lily's ringlets around his finger.

"Not only has Hogwarts gone without a pranking by the Marauders for several days now – "

"A tragedy, really." Cass commented sarcastically.

"But, we've got a quidditch match against Slytherin tomorrow!" Sirius finished, ignoring Cass's comment and Lily's giggle.

James straightened up immediately, knocking Lily forward. "You're RIGHT!"

Lily groaned and shot a dark look at James, who ignored it, his eyes bright and twinkling.

"Padfoot, old buddy, I'd better get to reviewing plays with you!" Immediately he shuffled off the bed, knocking Lily again, and led Sirius to another bed, where they hunched over a roll of parchment James had retrieved from his trunk.

"Ditched by your lover for a game. Any comments?" Cass asked, speaking into her closed fist as if it were a microphone, before offering it to Lily.

Lily laughed, pulling Cass's fist toward her mouth. "I feel… so empty… uncared for…" Lily sobbed, causing Cass to break out into laughter and Abby to smile weakly.

Lily stopped immediately as she saw her friend's face. "Abs, come on, what's wrong?"

"You know, don't you?" Abby said quietly.

Cass frowned. "Know what?"

"You know Remus's secret. The one he doesn't believe he can trust me with." Abby said slowly, trying to contain her emotions. She had never felt so hurt before. She felt sad, and angry with Remus for not being able to trust her, angry with her friends for knowing and not telling her. She was sure that they knew. She hated Remus… but she loved him. Without Remus she felt alone and empty. Abby Scott was in love.

Her friends were silent. _How am I supposed to tell Abs that Remus told me, and not his girlfriend?_ Lily wondered to herself, unable to respond. Luckily, both she and Cass were saved from responding when 'Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry next, Hogwarts' boomed out in the bus, and several passengers from the upper floors came down, looking very displeased and smelling of dung. Sirius smiled innocently at a particularly frazzled older woman, before the Knight Bus came to an immediate halt outside the wrought-iron gates of the school.

* * *

"And they're off! Gryffindor chaser Remus Lupin takes the Quaffle… Sharp pass to chaser Bryan Bell… Back to Lupin… SCORE! Gryffindor is now up by thirty points!" the announcer's voice roared across the stadium, and Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, and Hufflepuffs alike cheered loudly while the Slytherins scowled angrily at Remus, who was having an amazing game.

The girls were watching in the stands, with a large sign that flashed several different messages in red and golden script, saying things like 'Potter's #1 Fan', 'Best Beater = Black', 'Stomp the Slytherins' or 'Let's Kick Some Esche', Esche referring to Gregory Esche, the Slytherin captain, who, unlike the rest of the school, didn't find Lily's message very amusing.

Despite their valiant messages, all three girls known school-wide now as 'The Marauders' Troupe' weren't paying much attention to the game at all. In their inexperienced-in-quidditch eyes, Gryffindor was a shoe-in. James would pull into a dive, causing Lily to get all worried, he would pull out with the snitch, at which point Lily would drop back in her seat thankfully, and the party would begin. Lily yawned and took a sip of the coffee Cass had brought along, hoping to wake herself up and look somewhat more enthusiastic. No luck. But at least she looked better than Cass and Abby did. Cass was puffy-eyed, having woken up only seven minutes ago. Her normally straight blonde hair currently resembled a bush. Abby was in her pyjamas, and had dark circles under her puffy eyes. Lily only had the puffy eyes, and had thought before leaving the dormitory to braid her hair, preventing a 'bush' like Cass's.

"And Gryffindor beater Sirius Black saves Gryffindor Captain James Potter from a nasty bludger assault!" The announcer screamed happily, causing both Lily and Cass to look at the game with more interest, each at the mention of a certain boy. The Slytherin beaters had teamed up on James, by knocking both bludgers at him at the same time. Sirius, seeing the attack coming had successfully managed to knock both bludgers away.

Cass cheered loudly, and Lily jumped up and down, knocking Cass, who spilled her coffee all over the couple in front of them, who were kissing.

"Ohmigod, I'm SO sorry!" Cass screeched, looking completely mortified, as the couple broke apart and shrieked, the hot coffee scalding their skin.

Trying not to laugh, Lily quickly pulled out her wand, muttering a cooling charm on the two, before realizing: "Oliver?" she asked in disbelief, amazed Oliver had managed such a large display of public affection.

It didn't surprise Cass however, who scowled, no longer resenting spilling her coffee on them, since they didn't seem to be burnt. Prior to spilling her coffee, she had been pretty disgusted by the two, who had looked ready to pull each other's clothes off.

"Err… Yeah, hi Lily." Oliver said with a weak smile.

Lily's attention had already moved to the girl he had been snogging – Belinda Trafo, a fifth year Gryffindor, who blushed madly and looked down as she caught Lily's eye. Ever since Lily's friendship with James began in mid-September, a lot of the school had realized how nice, smart, and pretty Lily and her friends were. Lily's relationship with James had then vaulted her, along with Cass and eventually Abby, into popularity. Not that Lily noticed.

"You're Belinda, right?" Lily asked, frowning slightly as she recalled the girl's name. She was pretty sure she had tutored Belinda in fourth year for Charms.

"Err… yeah. You tutored me in Charms in my third year." Belinda said softly, barely able to be heard as Remus scored again and the stadium roared.

Lily nodded, with a smile. "Thought so."

James watched the interactions between Lily and some other Gryffindor girl from the corner of his eye, swooping overhead for a moment. He felt badly, he hadn't really been around for the past day or so, he had been busy getting his team pumped for the game. He circled the pitch, ignoring the Slytherins jeering as he soared passed, and a smile crossed his face as he saw the girls' banner flash to read: 'Potter's #1 Fan' and a redhead right beneath it.

That's when he saw it, a glint of gold floating right in the centre of the sign. Immediately he dove down, putting on speed as he hurtled toward the stands, the snitch, and a terrified looking crowd.

_Is James crazy? What the hell is he doing?_ Cass wondered frantically, as she closed her eyes, wincing in preparation for the sickening crash she was expecting to hear when James hit the stands. She clutched Lily's arm, trying to offer support, while Abby huddled against Cass, thinking along the same lines.

Lily's eyes widened in horror as James dove straight down toward the crowd, but her eyes found the snitch hovering a few metres above them, and she smiled softly to herself, suddenly not as afraid. _Will he be able to pull up in time though?_

_Am I going to be able to pull up in time?_ James wondered at that moment, his arm outstretched, his hand making contact with the small golden ball, before he pulled his broom upward. He was going too fast… he wouldn't pull up in time… He could feel the eyes of the entire school burning into his back, Lily was right in front of him… His broom wasn't in control any longer… He only saw the look of disbelief and fear in Lily's face as they collided, and the world went blank.

* * *

"Do you think they'll wake up soon?" Remus asked quietly, breaking the silence he and Abby had been in since they had arrived in the hospital wing.

Abby shrugged quietly. Sirius and Cass were outside, fending off most of the school and the rest of the Gryffindor quidditch team, all of whom, wanted to know about James and Lily's condition.

"Come on, Abby. Please don't do this." Remus muttered impatiently.

"Do what, Remus?" Abby asked angrily, the volume of her voice rising slightly.

"Do that! Why are you being so volatile?" Remus replied, his voice becoming louder than hers.

"Volatile? Why shouldn't I be volatile?!" Abby replied, her voice matching his.

"If you can't be quiet, I will ask you to leave." Madame Pomfrey interrupted huffily as she came between the two, looking stern.

"Sorry." Abby muttered. "We're just worried about our friends. How are they?"

"Mr. Potter has a mild concussion, five broken ribs, and a broken wrist." Madame Pomfrey said with a smile. "He'll be out in the next few days."

"And Lily?" Remus asked anxiously.

"Concussion, broken leg." Madam Pomfrey began. "However, she was impaled by Mr. Potter's broomstick, and although magic will be able to heal her, it could take up to two weeks for a full recovery. And she'll be very stiff when she does recover."

Abby sighed thankfully, sinking into a chair. Madame Pomfrey smiled at the two, before muttering something about chocolate for James, and rushing off to her potion and healing stores.

The infirmary door opened, and Cass slipped in, followed by Sirius, who had to lean heavily against the door to shut it, and locked it quickly behind him. Immediately they both approached Abby and Remus, looking anxious.

"So, how's James?" Sirius asked, glancing at the drawn curtains to his left.

"Apparently he'll be fine. Concussion. Broken ribs. Broken wrist."

"Oh. And Lily?" Sirius added, glancing at the bed next to James, the curtains drawn around it as well.

"Yeah." Added a hoarse voice. "How's Lily?"

"Jimbo?!?" Sirius asked in disbelief, yanking back the curtains surrounding James's cot to see a bruised, tired, worried looking James.

"Hi Padfoot." James said softly, his throat felt scratchy and dry, it hurt to talk. "How's Lily?"

"She's unconscious." Abby said shortly with a smile. James looked to beat up to take the truth; she wanted to spare him from it for now.

"I can't believe I couldn't pull out…" James muttered softly.

"Not your fault, mate." Sirius said with a reassuring smile, looking strangely sincere.

"At least we won… But still, I can't believe it… Lils…" James was muttering to himself softly, looking almost as guilty as he felt.

"Actually… there's a rematch in two weeks." Remus said softly, causing James to look up at him with a frown, and the rest of the group to glare at him.

"What?!?" James looked absolutely bewildered, and other than Remus, none of his friends would meet his eye.

"The snitch you saw. It wasn't the game snitch, it was some object Snape and his cronies transfigured to look like a snitch, and then levitated over Lily. They did it on purpose, knowing you wouldn't be able to pull out, and that you'd go after it. You crashed right into her. Your broom impaled her… Snape thought it was all very funny. The Slytherin seeker caught the real snitch about two minutes later. Dumbledore was furious, Avery and Lestrange are facing expulsion, and Snape has a good two years worth of detention." Remus said evenly, looking emotionless.

"Remus!" Abby glared at him angrily. "He didn't need to know that right away! He's supposed to be resting!"

"So, we're supposed to keep him in the dark?!?" Remus replied angrily.

"You weren't opposed to keeping me in the dark!" Abby retorted.

"I… My broom… Impaled Lily?" James asked softly, watching Abby and Remus size one another up.

Cass looked at James and smiled gently. "It was a mistake, James, I'm sure Lily doesn't blame you at all. She's going to be fine."

Remus was about to yell at Abby with a good comeback, but remained silent when he caught James's upset look.

"I can't believe I was so stupid. All I wanted to do was win, show her how good I was…" James muttered softly, more to himself than anyone else.

"Jimbo! It was the Slytherins' fault!" Sirius interrupted, sitting on the end of James's cot. "Stinky Slytherins."

The entire group agreed.

* * *

James was out of the hospital within three days, his wrist and ribs fully healed, and under strict instructions to come to the infirmary if he felt dizzy at all. As soon as he started classes again, he took over Abby and Cass's task of taking notes, diligently keeping them neat as possible.

Sirius was sickened by his friend's behaviour, since he no longer had anyone to goof off with in classes. Remus had always refused, Cass wouldn't go near him, and Abby wasn't in any of his classes.

"That had to be the most boring lesson EVER." Sirius complained, as he, Abby, and Cass walked to the infirmary to check on Lily, who had yet to regain consciousness.

Cass laughed. "You said that in History of Magic too."

"And in Muggle Studies." Abby added, chuckling quietly to herself.

"And at lunch, after Amos's fascinating lecture." Sirius added slyly. Cass grimaced and hit him on the arm playfully. She should have seen that coming. _I didn't see it though._

Amos had approached Cass at lunch, and made a very heartfelt apology in front of everyone. Sirius had called it 'the James approach', referring to when James had made an apology to Lily. Cass could remember it vividly…

_She had just sat down between Sirius and Abby for lunch, when she saw the familiar head of blonde hair approaching. 'Great' she had thought. The last person she wanted to talk to while Lily was in the hospital wing. She could almost picture her accusing Amos of helping the Slytherins. What he had said, about muggles, was inexcusable._

_"Cassebear, can we talk?"_

_He used the nickname he had made up for her before they had broken up. She used to think it was cute, but now, she found it exceptionally sappy._

_"No."_

_"Please. Just let me undo a few mistakes."_

_She grudgingly agreed, only because she knew Lily would have wanted her to. He then asked Abby to move down a bit, and she obliged, sliding away from Cass to make room for Amos. He didn't sit, however, instead, he stood up on the bench, and pulled Cass up with him._

_"Excuse me." He said loudly, getting the attention of the room. "I've taken a page out of James Potter's book – "_

_"Ha! Knew he was going for 'the James approach!" Sirius had interrupted loudly, before nodding, as if giving Amos consent to continue. Amos glared, but turned face the hall again._

_"And I'd like to apologize to Cassidy. I'm sure many of you heard our break-up argument, and I'd like to set some facts straight. My comment about muggles was cut short, I meant to say 'muggles you don't know', and I apologize to Cass and her friend, Lily Evans, and all muggle-borns for not making that clarification beforehand."_

_He had turned to Cass then, and looked into her eyes with a deep and meaningful stare._

_"Please, Cass… Let's try this again. I was an idiot, but I've learned my lesson, and I promise I'll make it up to you. Would you consider a date with me?"_

_"I'll think about it." Cass had answered softly, prompting the entire hall to break out into applause, except for Sirius._

"Sirius!" Abby said in disbelief, interrupting Cass's thoughts. "It was sweet!"

The trio quieted down as they entered the infirmary, knowing Madame Pomfrey would bite their heads off if they were too loud. Cass was in the middle of muttering something to Abby when she stopped dead in her tracks.

"Tig?" Cass asked softly, a smile creeping across her face. Lily smiled at her friends, who looked astounded. Lily was sitting up in her cot; the curtains pulled back, her hair in tangled ringlets. She looked tired, but very pleased to see her friends.

"Tig…" Cass repeated softly, taking a step forward, still in shock.

"I was going to wake up eventually!" Lily laughed, eyeing her friends' expressions. Suddenly, they realized it wasn't a dream, and smothered Lily in hugs. They explained the whole happening to Lily, who looked quite angry at the mention of Snape and the Slytherins, and how quiet and guilty James had been.

"Where is he now?" Lily asked curiously, munching on a bar of Honeydukes chocolate, which she had taken from the huge pile of get-well gifts.

"James? Err… dunno. Probably asking some Professor if you can have an extension for an essay, since he thinks you're still unconscious." Sirius muttered, ripping open another envelope from a large pile. "Oh, look, another get-well card. This one plays music. It's from that Belinda girl."

Lily nodded, ripping open an envelope from her family. She smiled as she unfolded her mother's stationary, and read the quick scrawl of her father.

_Dearest Munchkin,_

_We received an owl from your head of house, informing us you had been injured during a quidditch match. Your mother was mortified, but this only peaked Charlie's interest in the game. Your mother, of course, has now forbidden him to play it, until you come home and explain it to her._

_Please write when you've woken up, Professor McGonagall informed us that you'd be fine. Attached is a letter for Abigail, from some chap named Tom, and one for you from Mario. Don't like that boy._

_Love, Dad._

Lily frowned, and looked at the next sheet of paper, which had 'ABBY SCOTT' written across the top and underlined several times. She grinned, and tossed the paper at Abby, hitting her in the forehead. Abby frowned at Lily.

"It's from 'some chap named Tom'" Lily explained, quoting her father and imitating him almost perfectly.

Abby and Cass laughed, and Sirius gave a short chuckle, before looking a bit concerned.

"You're not serious about this Tom guy, are you?" He asked as Abby began reading her letter.

Abby frowned, pausing from reading her letter. "I don't know."

Cass took this opportunity to snatch the letter from Abby's hand, and despite Abby's protest, she began to read it aloud, putting on a macho voice, trying to sound like Tom.

"_Dearest Abby – _" she rumbled, as Lily and Sirius broke down in laughter. "_I've been thinking about you a lot recently, ever since I met you at the church dance. Do you believe in love at first sight? Because, I think I do now…_" Cass trailed off, and Lily and Sirius had both stopped laughing. Abby angrily snatched the letter back, clutching it tightly.

"He said he's in love with you, Abs." Cass said quietly ignoring the flushed angry face Abby was giving her.

"So?" she retorted.

"What about… You and Remus…" Cass asked tactfully, slowly, trying not to get Abby angry.

Too late. Cass had touched a nerve, and the normally quiet, peaceful, kind Abby was replaced with a fiery one, that could rival Lily's infamous temper. "WHAT ABOUT US?!? IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T REALIZED, REMUS AND I ARE NOT TOGETHER! IF HE CAN'T TRUST ME, I CAN ASSURE YOU THAT WE WON'T EVER BE TOGETHER!" Abby's voice was ringing through the infirmary, and the group was lucky Madam Pomfrey was at lunch, or Abby would have been forbidden to come again.

"Calm down, Abs." Lily said quietly, looking over her friend with emotionless eyes. "Cass was just curious, and I think she gets the point now. Are you going to write Tom?"

Abby was silent, and looked down at the letter, reading from where Cass had left off.

_… Do you believe in love at first sight? Because I think I do now… Abby, I'm afraid I'm in love with you. And I know this will probably scare you, but I want everything out on the table. I know you go to boarding school with Lily Evans, and that it's somewhere in Scotland (Mum couldn't remember exactly where Mrs. Evans said it was), and a relationship might be hard, but I'd like to give it a try. What do you think?_

_Love, Tom._

Abby was scared, really scared. Not as scared, as she had been when James had crashed into Lily and she thought she'd never see her friend again… Not as scared as she had been when Cass had yelled out that she liked Remus… Not as scared as she had been right before her first kiss with Remus… But it was still high up there. '_I want everything out on the table.'_ That was the one thing Remus wouldn't offer, and the one thing she wanted.

"Yes. I think I will." Abby said softly, with a weak smile. Sirius grimaced, and looked extremely displeased, but Lily gave her a warm smile, and Cass grinned as best she could.

* * *

"JAMESIE!!! MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS!!!" Sirius screeched, finding James sitting in the common room, pouring over a Potions essay.

"What, Padfoot?" James groaned, looking up from his essay to see his hyper, bouncy friend.

"You shouldn't be so grumpy! We have things to celebrate! But we also have things to be sad about, so perhaps you should be grumpy… But you have to be happy, I mean, it's great news. So maybe a combination of both… But they're opposites – "

"Padfoot?" James interrupted suddenly.

"Yes."

"Shut up and tell me what's going on."

"Oh. Well, that chap that Abby met at Lily's is writing her, and she's writing back." Sirius said first, deciding to have some fun with James.

"Is that the bad news?"

"Yes! Horrible, isn't it? Abby's completely obsessed with this honesty bit." Sirius spluttered.

"Calm down, Padfoot. What's the good news?"

Sirius paused, trying to create a dramatic effect, and irritate James further when he finally found out. "Lily's awake!"

But instead of being yelled at for taking so long to tell James something so important, which was what poor Sirius was expecting, James dropped his quill, pulled himself onto his feet, and dashed from the common room.

He'd never seen James run that fast.

"So, Abby's met another guy?" a voice behind him asked solemnly. Sirius turned to see Remus, his other best friend, looking pretty upset. He had dark bags under his eyes, and looked pretty pale.

"Err… Yeah. She met this muggle named Tom at the church-dance-thing Lillers took us to. He wrote her a letter." Sirius offered bluntly, but quietly. Sirius never was one for tact.

"And he's writing to her?" Remus asked, his voice even, though Sirius could tell he was fighting back emotions. Sirius was never one for tact, and Remus was never one for public displays of emotion.

"Yeah. Sound's a bit loony if you ask me - "

"I… I have to tell her, Padfoot." Remus said slowly, before making his way to the portrait hole.

"Moony!" Sirius called urgently to his friend's back. Remus spun around, and Sirius could see that Remus really was in love with Abby, and that he needed to tell her. "Good luck."

* * *

**Coming up:**

- What happens when Remus tells Abby that he's a werewolf?  
- Will Cass take Amos back?  
- Will we get a mushy LJ scene? (Answer: A bit of one!)


	17. Life's So Simple

**Sirius's Top Ten**

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**Wow! Another chapter! I'm really not in the mood for studying! The first bit's through the eyes of an outsider, Belinda (Oliver's girlfriend!)… Just for some fun! Kinda shows how the group's changed over the few months…**

**Everything is J.K. Rowling's except the plotline, Abby, Cass, Oliver, and Charlie. Plus all the new muggle friends we have. You know this.**

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* * *

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**Chapter 17: Life's So Simple**

Belinda Trafo smiled nervously as Lily Evans beckoned her closer. Belinda wasn't normally shy, but she had seen Lily angry and was being cautious. Besides that, she knew her place. There were unspoken hierarchies within the students of Hogwarts. The Marauders and their 'troupe' were at the top, though the girls didn't seem to notice it.

Lily smiled warmly, sitting in her cot, propped up by several pillows, her flame-red ringlets now brushed and defrizzed, to fall softly about her face. She looked tired, but pleased to see Belinda.

"Don't worry, Belinda, she's not going to eat you." Cassidy Flemmings, one of Lily's best friends, joked, causing Belinda's freckled cheeks to flush. Cassidy was the boldest of the group, except when it came to arguing with James Potter, in which, Lily took the prize.

Despite Cass's words, Belinda did feel very out of place, amid the 'beauties' of Hogwarts, as many of the boys in her year called them. She could name at least twenty girls who would do almost anything to be friends with Lily Evans, Cassidy Flemmings, or Abigail Scott. At the moment, Abigail was writing on a scrap of parchment, hunched over her letter privately, allowing her dark brown hair to fall sleekly over her shoulder, keeping her face from view. Cassidy had her dirty blonde hair pulled up messily in a ponytail, which accented the different shades of brown and blonde. These girls were thought to be perfect. They had perfect lives, perfect looks, and perfect friends…

"I won't!" Lily agreed with a bright smile. "Promise!"

Belinda smiled for a moment, before feeling very self-conscious again, and pulling softly at the hem of her skirt. She was short, and even Lily, who stood at a trying five-foot-seven, seemed like a giant to her measly five-foot-two. She had straight strawberry-blonde hair that fell in layers just past her shoulders, a square-shaped head, and blue-green eyes.

Lily frowned slightly at the girl's hesitation. "Well, I wanted to thank you for sending me that cute get well card."

"You mean the one that plays music?" Cass asked, frowning before Lily nodded. "Oh yeah, that one's great. I love the song. What is it, any way?"

"All You Need is Love." Belinda said, before realizing that Lily was answering at the same time.

"A muggle band." Lily added quickly, clearing Cass's blank look.

"Oh, one of your muggle bands, eh Tig? Is that 'The Cockroaches' one, or something?" Cass asked.

"You mean, 'The Beatles', Cass?" Lily replied, with a grin.

Belinda couldn't help but laugh, and Cass was silently glad that she had gotten a rise out of the fifth year. Cass didn't like the way Belinda was acting as if she were in the presence of royalty or something, and judging from the look Lily was wearing as Belinda doubled over, she felt the same.

Abby chuckled weakly, but was really intent on writing her letter. At first, it seemed like it would be easy, and she had written with determination that she thought trying a relationship would be a good idea. But now, she didn't really like what she had written.

The door to the infirmary burst open, causing Belinda to stiffen immediately, and she stood in awe as James Potter, infamous leader of the Marauders swept past her to Lily, looking extremely concerned.

Lily's face brightened as she saw him, and as soon as he reached her, the two embraced like they hadn't seen each other in years. They were both muttering to one another softly, James running his hand through her hair, Lily nuzzling him softly. Belinda had never seen two people so in love.

"I'm so sorry." James whispered quietly into her ear, ignoring the fact that a fifth year was staring at them.

"It's not your fault, don't be sorry." Lily replied calmly, feeling slightly irked by Belinda's stare, but ignoring her for a moment and trying to calm James down as he breathed heavily.

"I shouldn't have gone after it… Should have waited for it to move elsewhere…" James muttered to himself through deep breaths. He was so glad just to see her awake.

"James." Lily said firmly, pushing out of their embrace, with a stern look on her face. "I don't want you to blame yourself for anything. It's water under the bridge – I'm fine, you're fine, and we're going to get back at the Slytherins together."

Cassidy, who had been staring in the opposite direction to give the two privacy, turned and looked at her friend in disbelief.

"Lily Evans! Did you just agree to prank the Slytherins?" she asked incredulously.

Belinda smiled to herself, feeling she was somehow part of their group, although for the moment everyone, other than Lily had forgotten about her.

"I suppose." Lily replied nonchalantly, as James joined her on her cot, lying next to her with one arm across her stomach. Feeling Belinda's eyes, she looked up and smiled at the fifth year, who was watching them in utter admiration.

"James, this is Belinda Trafo, she sent me this card." Lily said gesturing first to Belinda, and then offering the card to James.

Belinda felt her face burn in embarrassment as James gave her a smile and a nod, and then looked at the card, flipping it open. Immediately the card began to play 'All You Need is Love', and James smiled.

"Interesting song choice, Belinda. Are you a fan of the Beatles as well?" he asked, shutting the card just before it hit the chorus.

Belinda nodded meekly, amazed that James Potter, who was a pureblood, knew about the Beatles. Her father was a muggle, which prompted her to enjoy muggle trends and music, and excel at Muggle Studies. The change in James amazed her, and she knew it was Lily's doing. He used to be totally arrogant and superficial. Beforehand, he probably wouldn't even have talked to her, or made a conversation with her. He was less cocky now, nicer.

"Weird choice of song for a card though." James said, not accusingly, more like a state of fact.

"It was the only one they had." Belinda murmured. James nodded, and glanced over at Abby, who was looking stricken because of her letter.

"Having trouble finding the words, Abs?" James asked slyly, and Abigail threw him a dirty look.

Belinda frowned. _Was that friction between the Marauders?_

"No." Abigail replied shortly, before turning her attention to Belinda, who was watching quietly. "Sorry I didn't introduce myself. I'm Abby."

"Belinda."

"It's nice to meet you Be – "

The infirmary door banged open again, and Belinda knew she wouldn't be surprised if the door came off its hinges completely. Remus Lupin appeared, looking flushed and breathing heavily, beads of sweat forming on the side of his cheek.

"Abby, I need to talk to you." He spoke urgently, before recognizing Belinda and giving her a nod of acknowledgement. "Hi Belinda. How's Care of Magical Creatures coming?"

Like Lily, Remus had tutored Belinda last year, but he had helped with Care of Magical Creatures.

"Good." Belinda replied softly.

Remus smiled, before looking at Abby Scott again, who Belinda knew was his girlfriend. "Abby?"

"I'm busy, Remus." Abby replied coldly, shocking Belinda. _How could anyone talk to Remus like that?_ Remus was one of the most patient people Belinda knew, also one of the nicest. He, like Lily, Cassidy, Abby, and even James (somewhat) had shown that night, was oblivious to his popularity,

"No. I need to talk to you. Belinda, do you mind stepping out for a moment?" Remus asked persistently, but politely.

"Sure…" Belinda offered, stepping away from the group and closing the infirmary door behind her. Then she slumped down against the wall, waiting. She wasn't sure why. They would probably forget about her anyways. Her time would be better spent going back up to the common room. So she left, glad to know that the Marauders' lives definitely weren't perfect.

* * *

Abby groaned, reluctantly allowing Remus to drag her off to a secluded spot in the infirmary, ignoring her surprise at the strength of his grip.

"Okay, Abs, I'm telling you something very important." Remus began; hurt by Abby's disinterested look, but knowing he couldn't stop now. "I know you hate me – "

"I don't hate you Remus." Abby said quietly. Remus frowned, tried to catch her eye, but she was attempting the opposite, and would not meet his glance. Instead, she stared at a cabinet right behind his left ear, and concentrated on it with all her might.

"However you feel, Abby, especially after I tell you this, I have to ask that you keep this a secret. Only a few people know."

"Fine. I won't tell anyone." Abby replied swiftly.

"Promise?" Remus asked softly, knowing he sounded pretty immature.

"Promise." Abby agreed.

"Okay, Abs. I'm really sorry I didn't tell you before, but… Okay, here goes. When I was about four, I got lost in a forest with my cousin. I was bitten by a werewolf."

Abby was silent for a moment. Suddenly she felt like an idiot. Of course Remus had his reasons for not telling her. This was a _big_ secret. "So that's why… every month…"

"Every month I go to the Shrieking Shack and transform." Remus complied. "I'm so sorry I couldn't tell you, Abs, really I am. I wanted to, but Dumbledore said not to tell too many people. If word got out, a lot of parents wouldn't want me coming to the school with their kids."

"So Dumbledore knows?" Abby asked quietly.

"Yeah. And McGonagall. James and Sirius figured it out in the third year… I had to tell Lily in fifth because I would miss prefect meetings and rounds… And of course, my parents."

Abby nodded, her face unreadable. She had nothing against werewolves, and now, she had nothing against Remus. She had been _horrible_ to him. Remus looked nervous, anxious. "Why are you telling me this?" she asked softly.

"Because…" Remus trailed off. He took a deep breath. "I'm still… I am… I always have… I love you."

"Remus… I…" Abby faltered, feeling more and more guilty. "I'm sorry!" Abby flung her arms around Remus like an old friend, and gripped him tightly. "I'm so sorry. For everything."

* * *

"So, Cass, have you forgiven Amos?" Lily asked nonchalantly, finishing off her mashed potatoes.

"Yeah. I sent him an owl this morning saying he could have the honour of taking me to Hogsmeade next weekend, and being my valentine." Cass said with a grin as she helped herself to the dessert that had magically appeared before her.

"The 'honour'? That's a bit big-headed, if you ask me." James commented, he too starting his dessert.

"Your opinion does not count, Mr. I'm-King-of-the-World Potter." Cass replied snidely.

"Cass!" Lily exclaimed, looking shocked, though really, she found it all very amusing.

"What, coming to James's defense, Mrs. Potter?" Cass asked with a wicked grin, which silenced both James and Lily, and caused them to flush a deep red.

"Abs? What about you and Remus?" Lily asked softly, catching her friend's eye and trying to change the subject.

"What about us? We're… awkward friends." Abby answered quickly.

_She hadn't taken him back_. Lily offered a supportive smile, but really, she felt badly for Remus. Abby was one of her best mates though, so it was her duty to offer support. To both of them.

Down the table, Sirius and Remus were having a similar conversation, keeping their voices low.

"So, she's still not with you?" Sirius asked, looking stunned as he looked at Remus, who looked tired and upset.

"No. We're just friends." Remus said with a weak smile, taking a Cauldron Cake and putting it on his plate.

"D'you know why?" Sirius persisted, though the level of his voice had dropped considerably.

"No."

"Oh."

"Attention all students – "

All conversations in the Great Hall were interrupted as Dumbledore stood urgently, his face grave. "The village of Hogsmeade is being attacked by supporters of Lord Voldemort."

Many people flinched at the mention of the dark wizard's name, while others were paling. Lily's hand gripped James's tightly. She had gotten out of the Hospital Wing that morning, and though she was a little stiff, but had started classes again, and had been constantly under James's watchful eye all day. James looked at her and offered a soft, reassuring smile. Sirius was too pale to quip about it.

"In the circumstances that his supporters make their way up to the castle, I ask that all of you, calmly, make your way to your house common rooms with your head of house. All other teachers, as well as the Prefects and Head Boy and Girl will assist me in locking down the castle. I ask all other students to refrain from going anywhere, aside from their common room."

What followed could be described as mass hysteria. The Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws jumped up and many girls shrieked. Many of the Slytherins were muttering about joining the Death Eaters in Hogsmeade, before flashing innocent smiles at Dumbledore. The Gryffindors sat at their table solemnly, most of them in lost in shock. There was a stampede of sorts toward the door, and Cass worried when she lost sight of Abby amid the herd of people.

"Remus! Help me find Abs!" she screeched, grabbing onto the closest Marauder, and looking at the crowd desperately.

"Can't. I have to help Dumbledore." Remus objected frostily, pulling from Cass's grip. "Come on, Lily." He looked at Lily, who was still seated on the bench, looking dazed, as if this was all a dream. _Weren't they safe at Hogwarts? Was anyone safe? Was her family safe?_

"Oh right." She muttered, standing quickly, and brushing herself off. She ignored James's pleading look, kissed him quickly on the cheek, and followed Remus briskly up to the Teacher's Table.

She had never seen any of them look so grim, even when they told Peter he had failed yet another exam, or when they were pranked on by the Marauders. Because of her recent illness, Dumbledore assigned Lily and Remus to taking the Gryffindor first through third years up to the common room, incase they got lost in the hysteria.

"Calm down, everything will be fine." Lily reassured a timid group of first years, leading one girl, who was sobbing hysterically, up the stairs, holding her hand. "Just follow me." She led the long train of kids up the stairs, trying to keep a smile plastered on her face, but she was terrified.

"Are we gonna die, Lily?" a small first year boy, who reminded Lily a lot of Charlie asked softly, his face pale and his eyes full of fear.

"Of course not!" James said brightly, appearing behind them. Lily nodded, and the entire group seemed a bit calmer as James escorted the group to Gryffindor Tower. As soon as the last first year had climbed into the portrait hole, Lily smiled at James gratefully, and enveloped him in a hug.

"Why would anyone do something like this? Kill innocent people?" she choked out softly, brushing tears from her eyes.

"There are some people, Lils, who just have… very twisted minds."

"D'you think we'll be safe?" she asked, finding some comfort in his soft hazel eyes.

"I don't know, Lils…" James offered softly, leaning in to kiss Lily.

"Mr. Potter! Ms. Evans! Both of you are expected to be in the Tower. The passwords will be changed momentarily and a spell will be put on the Tower to prevent anyone from finding it." Professor McGonagall screeched as the portrait of the Fat Lady swung open, and the stern woman climbed out clumsily. "IN!"

Scared by her tone, Lily and James obliged, and climbed in swiftly, the portrait shutting promptly behind them. The common room was almost silent, everyone broken into appropriate groups of friends, whispering softly. Immediately, Lily's eyes scanned the room for her friends, and she relaxed as they fell upon Cass, Sirius, Remus, Peter, and a grudging Abby sitting a corner. Next, she looked for Belinda, who had left abruptly that last night when Remus asked her to step out. She had wanted to talk to Belinda since breakfast this morning, but had been unable to find her. She couldn't find her now, either. _She's not here._ A voice in Lily's head rang out in panic as the looked over the Gryffindors.

_Let's be reasonable. She's probably in her dormitory._ Lily left James's side without an explanation, and dashed up the stairs to the fifth year girls' dorm, and knocked quickly, before bursting in. The room was empty, aside from Oliver.

"Oliver?" Lily asked in amazement. "What are you doing here?"

"Lily, Belinda, she's not here." Oliver said quickly, his face full of concern.

Lily nodded. "I noticed. Let's go."

Oliver followed Lily back into the common room, Lily at a fast, determined pace. Immediately, Lily made her way to the portrait hole, and hopped out, followed quickly by Oliver.

Lily's heart was racing as she and Oliver slunk through the corridors, the light of the moon casting eerie shadows through the windows in the unlit hall, and several floors below, Lily could hear the muffled sounds of people yelling hexes, and curses.

Oliver had seen Belinda last by the Charms classroom, so they made their way there first, edging along the wall of the corridor, their wands out, both terrified. The relative silence was broken by a loud sob, and Lily ducked into the History of Magic classroom to see Belinda, hunched in a corner, tears streaming down her face.

Lily and Oliver made their way to her side, and she hugged Oliver before clutching onto Lily nervously. A loud bang erupted in the hallway, and before Lily could mutter any words of support or comfort, the three Gryffindors were surrounded by at least seven Death Eaters, all with wands drawn, pointed at Lily, Belinda, and Oliver.

"'ello." The Death Eater at the front of the group offered slyly, his face covered by a mask with slits for eyes.

"Hello." Lily offered coolly, sounding much more confident and calm than she was. Why hadn't she told someone where she was going?

"A fiery one, I see. And a prefect too." Another Death Eater commented, her voice trying to sound heartless.

Lily beamed proudly and nodded, though inside, she felt as though her heart was going to bulge out of her chest. More than anything she wanted to live through this, see her friends and family once more. Considering the track record of Death Eaters, however, chances of surviving this would be slim. But there was still so much for her to do in life, so many people to meet, experiences to have…

"Obviously your prefect friend isn't scared." The female Death Eater spoke up again, trying to get her voice in a taunting tone. "Are you?"

"N-no!" Belinda stuttered bravely, causing the Death Eaters to laugh.

"At least she's not hiding behind a mask." Lily said, breaking the laughter with her cool and collected tone.

"If I were in your position, Mudblood, I'd be a bit more polite." The first Death Eater spoke out again.

"Well how about we swap positions, and you can show me how?" Lily asked sarcastically, gaining stares of disbelief from the entire room, although she could only see the ones from Oliver and Belinda.

"Sounds like a plan! And I'll go next, hi Dad!" A voice called brightly from behind the Death Eaters. All seven turned to see Sirius Black, standing in the doorway, looking quite smug. "Heya, Lillers!" he added happily, as his cobalt eyes fell on the three, huddled on the floor. "Oliver! How are ya, mate? And you're Belinda Trafo, no?" Sirius began to walk over to them, as if he were going to introduce himself, before the Death Eaters turned their wands on him. "Tsk, tsk! You should know that dueling is not aloud in the hallways! Lillers, in your role as prefect, you should have informed them – "

"Shut up, you stupid child." A third Death Eater spoke out.

"I would appreciate that you not insult my students." A cold voice spoke out from the door, and there stood Albus Dumbledore, stony-eyed, with his wand extended at the Death Eaters, followed by several Aurors.

Belinda had been way off when she decided that the Marauders' lives weren't perfect. Life wasn't simple, for anyone, and the Marauders were no exception.

"STUPEFY!"

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**Gonna leave it at that… Firstly – cliffhanger, eh? So, do we want Abby and Remus together, or what? I'm not too sure what I'm doing with them, so for now, they're not. **

**Coming up:**

- What happens in the History of Magic classroom?  
- Will Lily, Oliver, Sirius, or Belinda live to celebrate Valentines Day?  
- If they do, how will the group celebrate?


	18. Hate to Leave You Hanging

**Sirius's Top Ten**

**Sorry it took so long for the new chapter!! I'm just finishing off school, and then I'll be a lot better about new chapters. Another apology – Valentines Day will be in the next chapter, it didn't fit in this one.**

**Thanks to everyone for their fabulous reviews: Angul-gurl, TeenTypist, James-Padfoot, sweet-baby-angel182, Jen Riddle, bBy x jUjUbee, tayto08 – you rock my world! Keep reviewing!!!**

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**Chapter 18: Hate to Leave You Hanging**

_"STUPEFY!"_

Lily's eyes widened as Oliver screamed, his wand pointed at Sirius. Immediately Sirius's limbs went rigid, and he fell to the floor. Belinda was clutching Lily's arm in terror, and Lily was fumbling for her wand, which she had put back in her pocket.

"Oliver! What the hell – " Belinda began, looking at her boyfriend in a mixture of surprise, disbelief, and disgust.

"CRUCIO!" A Death Eater screamed, silencing Belinda, who doubled over in pain. Lily sat in shock for only a few seconds, before gently pulling Belinda's crippled form behind Professor Binns' desk, not that it would give much protection. In order that she didn't touch Belinda and cause her more pain, Lily had dragged her by gripping onto her shoes, and now that they were behind the desk, Lily was able to straighten her out slightly and stole a peek from behind the desk.

Dumbledore and the five or so Aurors were duelling with the Death Eaters, Dumbledore with a cold look in his eyes that caused shivers to run down Lily's spine. Duelling tactics were amazing – both the Aurors and Death Eaters were firing and blocking spells at a rapid pace, almost like a dance. Two Death Eaters lay on the floor, knocked out or in a body bind curse, Sirius was still lying flat on the floor, and Oliver had been hit by some spell, and was unconscious.

The window of the classroom was then shattered by one of the remaining Death Eaters throwing a history text through the window, and the remaining five Death Eaters abandoned their duels to fling themselves out the window. It reminded Lily very much of the action films muggles made, where the hero would fling him or herself out the window right before something exploded.

"Accio, broom!" each of the Death Eaters called as they plummeted toward the ground. Five brooms appeared from somewhere in the Forbidden Forest, and the Death Eaters grasped them, before flying off into the distance, far enough away from Hogwarts so that they could apparate.

"Damn!" One of the Aurors swore, nursing a deep cut across his forehead as he did so.

"At least we got two." Another reasoned, gesturing to the two crippled forms that lay on the floor. "Even if they're Malfoys, they'll have problems getting out of this one."

"Ms. Evans?" Dumbledore asked in a cheerful tone, startling Lily, who had been watching the scene unfold intently. He was standing over her now, looking somewhat amused at how she, and Belinda were hiding beneath the desk.

"Professor Dumbledore! I…" Lily stuttered, unable to complete her sentence, or even begin an explanation as it dawned on her. _I disobeyed direct orders not to leave the tower. He's going to expel me!_

"Would you mind accompanying me to Professor Binns's office? I have a few questions concerning tonight's events." Dumbledore offered a friendly, reassuring smile. "I will have Alastor Moody accompany both Mr. Black and Ms. Trafo to the hospital wing."

"Will she be okay?" Lily asked timidly.

"Ms. Trafo? Oh yes, the curse was lifted after Alastor took care of the Death Eater that performed the Cruciatus Curse." Dumbledore replied kindly.

"And Oliver?"

Dumbledore frowned softly at this. "I'm afraid his actions tonight are somewhat suspicious, so he will be questioned by the Aurors when he regains consciousness. He, too, will be fine. Now, Ms. Evans, could you?"

Dumbledore offered a hand to Lily, who took it, and pulled the dishevelled girl up from the floor. He led her into Professor Binns's office silently, before taking a seat behind the desk, and watching Lily quietly take a seat. The office was small, and bookshelves lined all the walls, making Lily feel somewhat claustrophobic.

"Why were you out of the Tower, Ms. Evans?"

"Well, I was in the Tower, and we were all just sitting there… I wanted to find Belinda and thank her for the card she sent me while I was in the hospital wing… She wasn't in the common room, so I checked her dormitory. Oliver was there, he couldn't find her either, so we left to look for her." Lily answered quietly, pausing for thought several times.

"Did Mr. Field seem very intent on leaving the Tower to find Ms. Trafo?" Dumbledore asked, offering another supportive smile.

"Not on leaving the Tower… I thought of that… He was really concerned for Belinda though." Lily replied, realizing it was probably her fault Oliver and Sirius were hurt.

A knock on the door interfered with Dumbledore asking any more questions, and before a 'come in' could be muttered, one of the Aurors, Alastor Moody strode into the room, leading a revived Sirius and Oliver behind him. Sirius looked excited, and had that mischievous glint in his eyes, whereas Oliver looked totally confused and disorientated.

"Sit down." Moody grumbled, shoving Sirius and Oliver into two chairs beside Lily that he had just conjured. He then offered a piece of parchment to Dumbledore, before retreating from the room.

"I'm sure all three of you are rather befuddled by now." Dumbledore commented as he read the parchment quickly.

"A little." Oliver admitted, feeling very awkward as Lily and Sirius glared at him.

"Well, hopefully I will be able to clear up some things. Mr. Field has been in a broom closet just outside this classroom for the past six hours, under a powerful sleeping draught. A Death Eaters, Roldolphus Lestrange, pretended to be you, Oliver, with the assistance of a Polyjuice Potion."

"So… they set it all up to get Lily?" Sirius asked incredulously.

"I am not sure. They definitely knew where Mr. Lestrange and Lily were going. Ms. Trafo has attested that Mr. Field, who evidently was actually Mr. Lestrange, locked her in the classroom, preventing her from leaving."

Oliver was silent in shock and his face pale.

"I'm so sorry, Oliver! I thought it was actually you!" Lily apologized profusely, ignoring the fact that Death Eaters had been after her, and her alone.

"It's alright…" Oliver mumbled quietly.

"Mr. Black, may I ask why you were out of bed?" Dumbledore inquired, looking at Sirius attentively. "Or how you got out of Gryffindor Tower in the first place."

_Bugger._ Sirius flashed an innocent smile. He would have to tell them that he and James knew. "Well, a few seconds after Lily and Oliver left, and the portrait hole was sealed, me an' James realized that Lillers was gone."

"Lillers?" Dumbledore interjected. "By that, you mean Ms. Evans?"

"Yeah. So, James panicked and searched the Tower completely, before saying he was going out looking for her. I said I was coming. We split up outside the dormitory, and he checked the upper floors while I checked the lower ones, so of course, I found Lily." Sirius explained. _Maybe he won't notice I didn't explain –_

"And your escape from the magically sealed Tower?"

_Bugger again._ "Well, back in fourth year, James and I discovered a chute that the house elves use to toss down dirty sheets and such – "

"This chute also has a spell on it to prevent non-clothing objects sliding down it." Dumbledore interjected once more, keeping his polite tone.

"Yeah, well, after we learned human transfiguration in fifth year, James just transforms us into boxer shorts and we can slide down." Sirius explained, lying through his teeth. The human transfiguration they did in fifth year was extremely basic, and he and James had only been able to accomplish this feat with the knowledge they gained when becoming Animagi.

"I see." Dumbledore replied, looking somewhat apprehensive.

"Is Belinda alright, Professor?" Lily asked, saving Sirius from a situation that she knew would probably get him into quite a bit of trouble.

"She will be fine, yes. But I now must ask that you return to your dormitories. The castle has been checked and the only remaining Death Eaters are those who've been captured. Do not speak of this event to anyone."

The three Gryffindors nodded mutely, and left the office, walking down the corridors quietly. Lily was gripping Sirius's arm nervously; it has just dawned on her that the Death Eaters were after her and even Dumbledore had no reason why.

"What do we do about James?" Lily asked quietly, not wanting to sound snobby by adding 'he's probably still looking for me.'

"I dunno, I guess – " Sirius trailed off as he caught sight of Argus Filch, the caretaker of the school, leading a tall, messy-haired boy by the collar towards the Gryffindor common room. The distance between the two groups made it impossible to hear the entirety of Filch's conversation, but Lily could distinctly pick up snippets pertaining to James's 'blatant disregard for rules' as well as several comments about James being an 'arrogant little snot' and a rhetorical question: 'think you're king a the world, Potter? You're not!'

"Sounds like you, Lillers." Sirius joked.

Lily playfully shoved Sirius, who bumped into Oliver. Oliver glared at them.

"How can you be so cheery?" Oliver asked coldly. "You just survived a Death Eater attack, you should be thankful for your lives, and you're just goofing off?"

Both Sirius and Lily were silent for a moment, before Lily managed to speak. "We're both very thankful, Oliver. But now its time to go back to our lives. We can't walk around thinking we're going to die any second… You wouldn't be living, and there would be no point to surviving in the first place."

The group was silent for a moment, but continued walking, having lost sight of Filch and James up ahead. Not liking the silence, Sirius whistled.

"Whoa, that was deep. Too deep for two in the morning, Lillers."

Lily smiled weakly, but was glad when they finally reached the portrait hole where Professor McGonagall was waiting impatiently, in her hair net and tartan dress robes, tapping her slipper-clad foot against the cold stone.

"Good morning, Professor!" Sirius chirped happily. McGonagall grunted in response and muttered an incantation quickly, allowing the portrait hole to swing open. Lily, Sirius, and Oliver quickly climbed in, and the portrait shut behind them.

The common room was empty, save for James, Remus, Cass, and Abby, who lay on the couches by the fireplace, all dishevelled and asleep. Sirius grinned, retrieving his wand and muttering 'Wingardium Leviosa' and levitating James and Remus's sleeping forms off the couch. Lily followed suit, and both were soon navigating their friends up the stairwells.

"Lillers?" Sirius called softly from the landing of the fifth year boys' dormitory.

"Yeah?" Lily called back, peeking her head out the door and inadvertently knocking Cass's head on the doorframe.

Sirius winced. "Be careful with the cargo there."

"What do you want?"

"Happy Valentines Day!"

Lily smiled. "It's in a week still, but you too, Sirius."

As soon as Lily had levitated Cass into her bed and Abby into Lily's bed with her, Lily's head dropped to the pillow in exhaustion. Sirius, on the other hand, thought it would be much more fun to return the sleeping forms of James and Remus to the common room, take their wands, and hand them on the chandelier by their boxer shorts. But even Sirius Black eventually gets tired, and so after chuckling to himself for a few moments, he too went to bed.

"LILY! WAKE UP!" A voice called desperately from the common room, waking Lily and sending the common room into a fit of giggles. Lily groaned and glanced at the watch Cass had given her last Christmas. It was only seven twenty, she'd only had about five hours of sleep.

Pulling her messy curls into a ponytail, and putting on a bra under her pyjama top, Lily strode down into the common room to see what the fuss was. Cass and Abby were already down there, their faces bright red with laughter.

"LILY!" the voice, which Lily recognized as James's roared again. Lily frowned and glanced upwards in the direction of the source. She doubled over as she saw James and Remus, looking extremely uncomfortable, hanging by their boxer shorts on the chandelier. It seemed Sirius had been kind enough to put some type of stretching charm to prevent any 'damage', but the boys were definitely trapped.

"Morning James." Lily smiled pleasantly. Sirius joined the girls and swung his arm around Lily, quite pleased she wasn't helping them down right away.

"LILS!" James roared. "HELP US DOWN!!"

"Well, actually, James, I need to get down to breakfast. I'm really tired, it'll take me awhile – "

"LILY! ANYONE! PLEASE!" Remus interrupted her, looking pleadingly at the three girls.

Lily smiled mischievously and looked to her friends. "Breakfast, anyone?"

"Hate to leave you hanging boys, but the food calls!" Sirius added.

The entire common room broke into laughter, and began filing out the portrait hole, leaving behind a very distraught James and Remus. Lily and Sirius led the group, Sirius's arm still swung around Lily's shoulders.

"Sirius, I need your help."

"With what, Lily-love?" Sirius replied, grinning.

"A prank." Lily muttered quickly.

"A prank?" Sirius looked at Lily in mixture of disbelief and excitement.

"On the Slytherins. For what they did at the Quidditch game."

"Oh right! Got any ideas?"

"Actually…" Lily's voice dropped another level and she moved closer to Sirius so he could hear, but even so, Sirius was surprised he could hear her. Finishing her plan, she pulled away from him, and waited expectantly.

"Bloody brilliant, Lillers." Sirius offered with a smile and a look of awe.

"So, you'll help me then?"

"Definitely."

"Perfect."

"What's perfect?" Cass interrupted, leaving a delusional Abby behind her and joining the pair.

"Oh, life in general." Lily offered randomly.

"Well, actually…" Sirius corrected, "It's not. There's the thing that happened last night, Abby and Remus, the fact that James's birthday is in about a month and we haven't planned what to do, Valentines Day is in a week, You-Know-Who…"

"Since when are you such a downer, Sirius?" Lily frowned.

"Yeah?" Cass agreed. "Where's the goofy, idiotic Sirius we all know and love?"

"Just stating the facts!" Sirius defended, before a wicked grin spread across his face. "Does that mean YOU love me too, Cassidy Flemmings?"

"I… err… No! It was just…" Cass faltered, and Sirius skipped ahead of the girls and began to dance and sing. In neither activity did he possess much skill.

"CASSIDY FLEMMINGS LOVES ME!!" He sang, doing a jig down the corridor. "SHE LOVES ME!"

"Shut it, Black!" Cass yelled angrily, but Sirius continued. Instinctively, Cass pulled out her wand, and muttered a levitation spell, hanging Sirius on a chandelier above, and placing a permanence charm on his pants. "Expelliarmus!"

Sirius's wand floated down to Cass, who snatched it and smiled smugly. "Hate to leave you hanging, Black, but 'the food calls!'" Cass called, imitating Sirius almost perfectly.

With a few more laughs from the crowd, the Gryffindors set off for breakfast again, leaving Sirius hanging on the chandelier, in a similar position to his two best mates. Seeing no other way to spend the time until a teacher saved him, Sirius began to sing again.

"CASSIDY FLEMMINGS LOVES ME!" echoed through the corridors, eventually reaching Cass, Lily, and Abby right before they entered the Great Hall. Abby and Lily laughed, and Cass grimaced.

"Stupid prat won't shut up." Cass muttered staring daggers in Sirius's general direction.

"Do you want him to?" Abby asked slyly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Cass asked incredulously.

Her two friends smiled before also breaking out into song. "CASSIDY FLEMMINGS LOVES SIRIUS BLACK!!"

Cass's face contorted into a frown, before sweeping away from her friends and into the Great Hall. She shook her head as she sat down at the Gryffindor table. Whether Sirius had intended for her to take him seriously or not, his words entered her thoughts. _Me, in love with Sirius? The whole school's gone to the nuthouse._

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**Coming up:**

- What will Valentines Day bring?  
- What sort of prank are Lily and Sirius planning?  
- What's up with Abby?  
- HAS Hogwarts gone to the nuthouse? 


	19. Alone on Valentines Day

**Sirius's Top Ten**

**Thanks to all my reviewers – James-Padfoot, bBy x jUjUbee, TeenTypist, Jen Riddle, Hippie1212, ShanYuri, cocoyasha, Rose-Mariann-Johnston, SiriusSweetie7 & Evil-Angel-911. I LURVE YOU!!!**

**Okay, sorry for the delay. Also – I'll be leaving for camp this Sunday ****L**** (June 27) so all stories will be on hiatus for two weeks. I hope to get at least a few more chappies up before I leave!**

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**Chapter 19: Alone on Valentines Day**

"Hey, Abs, what's up?" Lily asked softly as she joined Abby at a table in the library, dropping several textbooks onto the table with a loud thump. Madam Pince, the librarian frowned in Lily's direction, but Lily pretended not to notice.

"Oh, nothing." Abby replied absentmindedly, doodling on a piece of parchment that was supposed to be her History of Magic essay. Beneath was a letter she was writing to Tom, but she was quite sure Lily wouldn't be too… supportive or happy about that.

"Come on, Abs. Talk to me." Lily pleaded, trying to catch her friend's eye. Abby, of course, continued to stare with concentration at her parchment.

"Lilibear… I… I think I still love Remus." Abby smiled weakly, finally meeting her friend's eyes. Abby had recently begun using the nickname 'Lilibear' or just 'Bear' for Lily, after a comment about Lily being as 'ferocious as a bear'. Besides, James refused for anyone else to call her 'Lils'.

"Then why are you writing to Tom and not with Remus?" Lily asked softly, a quiet, non-judging tone in her voice.

"I'm not going to be with Tom… much longer." Abby said sheepishly as she revealed the letter she had been writing beforehand and offered it to Lily. Lily took it and read through it quickly, her bright green eyes flying across the lines.

_Dear Tom,_

_I hate to do this through a letter, but I'll be staying at school for Easter so I have no other way to do it. I'm not sure we, as a couple, are going anywhere, and I'm afraid I still have feelings for my old boyfriend, Remus. It wouldn't be fair to you to keep going with this. Thanks for being an amazing boyfriend, Tom. I'd love to stay friends._

_Yours, Abby._

Lily smiled brightly as she looked up from the letter. "So what about Remus?"

"I… I don't know." Abby said softly, looking down at the wooden surface of the table in front of her to avoid Lily's eyes again.

"But you love him." Lily stated simply. Remus was like a brother to her, and she wanted him to be happy – he was when he was with Abby.

"I know, but it's not as simple as you and James… He lied to me Bear, and…" Abby trailed off again.

"And?" Lily persisted.

"Well, there's no real point. I honestly love Remus, and before I knew about his condition, I was planning the names of our children. But that will never happen, Lils. As much as I love him, I want to get married, have kids… After he told me, I looked some things up in the library – about lycanthropy. With his condition, there's a sixty percent chance that the… affliction will be hereditary, and the children will become werewolves. I've always wanted kids, so it wouldn't work."

Lily frowned, surprised by her friend's words, but hid her surprise under what she believed was a playful taunt. "You were planning the names of your children?"

"Oh, come on Bear!" Abby retorted in exasperation and embarrassment. "Don't tell me you've never thought about names you think are nice… What you'd like to name your kids."

"I s'ppose I have once or twice, you know, in History of Magic." Lily admitted. "But I never thought about who I'd be having the children with." That wasn't the complete truth though – she had, maybe once or twice considered what names James would like for children, but never too seriously. "I've always liked the name Harry for a boy. Sara or Laura for a girl." Lily added, trying not to make Abby feel like a weirdo.

"Harry James Potter." Abby said with a dazed smile. "Sounds nice."

Lily blushed a deep red and opened her mouth in protest, but Abby interrupted her. "Just kidding Bear!"

"What were you going to name your children then?" Lily asked snappily, trying to embarrass Abby a bit.

"Simple. For a girl, Marie or Claire, and for a boy Michael or Joseph." Abby admitted easily. Lily just muttered under her breath for a moment, before looking back to her friend.

"So, you and Remus are done?" Lily clarified.

"That's the problem. I want to be with him."

"You know, Abs… I think you're looking just a tad too far in advance. I, for sure, don't want to get married until I'm at least twenty-four. By the time you're ready for kids and married, the might have found a cure."

Abby smiled thoughtfully at this. "Maybe you're right."

"And maybe if you just chatted with Remus about your concerns."

Abby smiled. "You're a great confidante, you know that Bear?"

"_Confidante_?" Sirius interrupted as he joined the girls at their table, with a large spell book. "You've been spending way too much time with the Ravenclaws. Time to come back to your normal Gryffindor buddies."

"Wow Sirius, in the library. I had no idea you even knew of its existence." Abby replied swiftly.

"Oi! Shut it, will yah? Cass was givin' me enough about it already."

"Cass?" Lily asked, perking up and smiling suggestively at Sirius.

"Yeah, Cass, Flemmings, whatever. We were walking and I told her I was meeting you in the library and she started laughing and wouldn't believe me." Sirius explained, ignoring Lily.

"She's forgiven you then? For singing?" Abby asked, covering her letter to Tom with the parchment for her essay again.

"Nah." Sirius said smiling playfully. "But she's talking to me. Anyways, Lily, shall we get to work?"

"Never thought I'd live to hear Sirius Black say something like 'shall we get to work'." Abby muttered quietly to herself. "Work on what?"

"Sirius is helping me plan something." Lily replied nonchalantly. "Come on, Sirius, we need another book on Potions." Lily stood, and with a smile to Abby, she took Sirius's hand, and led him toward the Potions section of the library. In a few seconds, they had disappeared behind the bookshelves, just as the library door swung open and James stalked in. Immediately he made his way to Abby.

"Where's Lily?" James demanded, looking quite angry.

"Hello to you, too." Abby replied cheerfully.

"Come on, Abs, do you know where she is?" James asked impatiently.

"She's looking up potion things with Sirius." Abby replied shortly, annoyed at James for being so rude.

James didn't even bother to go to the Potions section and look for his friend and girlfriend, instead, he cleared his throat, and standing firmly, yelled. "LILY EVANS! SIRIUS BLACK! COME HERE!"

Madam Pince, the librarian looked extremely upset, and made her way to James and began to tell him off about keeping his voice down while in the library and asking him to leave. Since James was distracted, Lily and Sirius were able to peek at him from behind the bookshelf.

"He looks mad." Sirius commented. "What did you do, Lillers?"

"Nothing!" Lily replied in annoyance. "Obviously, _you_ did something."

James turned and caught them, gesturing for Lily to follow as he was shooed out of the library by Madam Pince. Ignoring Sirius's smug look, Lily obeyed, and followed James out into the corridor. As soon as the library door shut behind her, James burst.

"When were you going to tell me?" James demanded, clutching a piece of parchment in his hand.

"Tell you what?" Lily asked, looking quite confused.

"About your sister's wedding!" James replied in exasperation.

"I _did_ tell you about it! I'm flooing back to my house for the wedding and staying for the weekend!" Lily protested, the volume in her voice rising slightly.

"But the wedding is _this weekend_!!" James replied, the volume of his voice rising too.

"So?"

"It's…"

"Oh god! It's Valentines Day! I'm so sorry James! I'd forgotten!" Lily exclaimed, pulling herself closer to James and looking exceptionally upset with herself.

"It's fine." James reassured her, hugging her closely. "Just send your parents a note saying you can't come – "

Lily pulled away and looked at James as if he were crazy. "I can't to _that_ James! I promised Petunia I'd come!"

"Petunia _hates_ you!" James protested, looking just as astonished at Lily's behaviour as she did at his.

"So? Missing her wedding would make her hate me _more_!"

"So? Not like she's important or anything."

"JAMES! She's my _sister_! I can't believe I'm having this conversation! I'm going. I'm sorry I didn't realize I'd be missing Valentines Day, but I've made a commitment."

Lily turned on her heel and stormed off down the corridor. She left for home the next day, while she and James were both still stubbornly mad at one another. The sun rose into a clear sky that Saturday, Valentines Day and the day of Petunia's wedding, but James wasn't in a good mood. He had been woken up by Sirius Remus, who had insisted in escorting Abby (who was sleeping over in Lily's bed) and Cass down for breakfast. Both Sirius and Remus had armed themselves with chocolates and flowers for the two girls, and they now walked a few steps ahead, arms hooked respectively. Cass was laughing at one of Sirius's stupid Valentine jokes, and Remus and Abby were talking quietly. James just sulked.

"Remus, can we chat for a mo?" Abby asked timidly.

Remus frowned slightly but nodded, and the two broke away from the Gryffindors and into the empty History of Magic classroom. Abby looked exceptionally nervous, and so Remus was nervous too.

"Remus… I…" Abby began slowly, trying to find the right words. "I still… love you."

Remus was silenced by shock, and stood there dumbly with his eyes wide. "But – "

"I was thinking about my future when I said no to you, Remus. I have nothing against your lycanthropy – I think it makes you more unique and stronger – I was thinking about my future, and wanting children. Lily helped me realize that I was overanalysing our situation. I'm in love with you, Remus, and I shouldn't be denying my feelings. I'll worry about kids when I have to, it was stupid and childish of me. I know you probably don't want – "

Abby was silenced as Remus's lips met hers.

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"Where the hell are they?" Sirius asked as he and Cass sat across from James in the Great Hall. In the spirit of Valentines Day, the hall was decorated in pink and red hearts, and cupids flew about the hall, shooting people with magical arrows just for a little fun.

"Abby wanted to talk to Remus about something." Cass explained nonchalantly, biting into her toast.

"_Something?_ What's that mean?" Sirius asked with a frown.

"What's with you James?" Cass asked brightly, attempting to change the subject even though she already knew James's reasons.

"Nothing." James muttered darkly.

Sirius groaned. "Oh, lighten up already. So Lily couldn't stay for Valentines Day, it's just a cheesy holiday where you buy chocolates and flowers for girls – "

"Like you did for Cass?" James interrupted.

Sirius was silenced and Cass frowned, looking at him oddly. James smirked, stood, and left the Great Hall to leave Cass and Sirius in their awkwardness.

"So… if you bought me _chocolates_ and _flowers_, does that mean that you _like_ me, Sirius Black?" Cass asked playfully, smiling at a very embarrassed Sirius and breaking the silence that had been in place for about five minutes.

Suddenly, Sirius leaned forward and kissed Cass hard on the lips. She was shocked for a moment, but quickly she returned the kiss. Sirius's mind was racing, he couldn't believe he was finally kissing Cassidy Flemmings. It felt so right, but at the same time… This was Cass. And he was Hogwarts' infamous bachelor. _What am I doing?_

Just as Cass was wrapping her arms around his neck, Sirius pulled away, taking a deep breath. A small frown appeared on Cass's face. Had she done something wrong?

"I think I got hit by an arrow." Sirius explained lamely. "Sorry. My mistake."

Cass nodded slowly, hiding her disappointment behind a weak smile. "'Course. Just a mistake. I think I'm going to write to Lily. Since James obviously won't."

Cass stood swiftly and gathered her things in record time. Stumbling slightly and fighting back tears, she too left the hall, leaving Sirius alone for breakfast on Valentines Day.

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**Coming up:**

**- **The prank (I PROMISE!)  
- Will Lily and James make up?  
- Will Valentines Day get better?  
- How tacky with Petunia's wedding be?


	20. Alone on Valentines Day Part II

**Sirius's Top Ten**

**Thanks to all my reviewers – James-Padfoot, bBy x jUjUbee, TeenTypist, Jen Riddle, Hippie1212, ShanYuri, cocoyasha, Rose-Mariann-Johnston, SiriusSweetie7 & Evil-Angel-911. I LURVE YOU!!!**

**I am SOOOOO sorry for the delay. I went to camp on June 27 and didn't get back till Sunday, so I've been working on this chapter, and it's finally here! Yay! It's a nice long one since I feel so bad, and another should be up within a day or so. SORRY!! Anyways, I saw the third Harry Potter movie just before camp and I'm wondering what you thought of it? I loved it, the acting was much better, and it was funny. R&R!**

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**Chapter 19: Alone on Valentines Day (Part II)**

"Stupid jerk. I'm never speaking to him again! _EVER_!" Cass murmured angrily as she paced from one end of her dormitory to the other. She longed for Lily to be back so she could vent her feelings, but Lily wasn't expected until Monday. Abby was busy, Cass had discovered on her way from breakfast, making up for all the time she wasted being away from Remus.

She _needed_ Lily's advice right now – whatever elegant words Abby used to describe Lily were correct – she was an amazing listener and great at offering advice. Sirius had told Cass about the conversation between Lily and Abby in the library, but he stupidly could not recall exactly what word Abby had used, only that it had something to do with being a good listener. _Sirius…_ Why had he done that? Cass was certain he had _not_ been hit by one of the bewitched Cupid arrows. Besides, they only made you profess your love for the last person you talked to, not kiss them.

Abandoning her pacing, Cass slumped down in front of Lily's desk and immediately found some parchment and a quill, and began to write furiously in her messy scrawl.

_Dear Lily – _

_How was the wedding? I'm assuming you'll probably get this afterwards. Hate to bother you, but I'm… well Tig, I'm really upset. Something happened at breakfast this morning and I really need to talk to someone (Abby is busy with Remus :D)_

_Please write back!_

_Love, Cass._

Finishing her letter, she marched determinedly toward the Owlery, only to meet James marching in the opposite direction. She frowned, and forgetting her problems for a moment, gently grabbed his shoulder as he passed. "James? You alright?"

"Not really." James admitted feebly, the anger in his eyes disappearing and a look of hurt replacing it.

"I'm not either." Cass smiled weakly. "I was just going to send this to Lily…" Cass trailed off as James flinched at the mention of his girlfriend.

"I was going to, too. But Feathery-Beast wasn't there…" James trailed off as Cass flinched at the mention of Sirius's owl, Feathery-Beast or FB for short. Obviously something had happened between the two. Probably just another row. But normally, Cass wouldn't be, or look, this upset.

"Did you and Sirius have another row, Cass?" James asked quietly.

Cass shook her head and looked to the floor, her blue eyes welling up with tears. "No… He… He kissed me, James…"

"Isn't that a good thing? I thought you two fancied each other." James replied, looking rather confused. Cass was the first girl he'd ever met who was unhappy that Sirius Black had kissed her. Obviously she was mental, and Lily kept her around for human contact.

"Then he said it was a mistake." Cass finished.

James's face went blank, and Cass continued staring intently at the floor, wiping the tears from her eyes before they fell.

"So…" Cass choked out. "What's up with you and Lily?"

"She ditched me." James replied coolly, hiding his disappointment and hurt. He had thought Lily actually _loved_ him.

"_Ditched_ you?" Cass chuckled weakly, looking up from the floor to make eye contact with James, wiping another tear from her cheek and smiling amusedly.

"Yes!" James retorted, looking very offended. What did she find so funny about his girlfriend ditching him on Valentines Day to go to a wedding for a woman said girlfriend didn't even _like_??

"You're really self-interested sometimes, James, you know that?" Cass said, giving a shaky laugh. "I'm sure she didn't want to 'ditch' you, but you have to look at where she's coming from. It's her sister's wedding day!"

"Her sister doesn't even _like_ Lily! Why would she even bother?" James retorted fiercely. He had an itching in the back of his mind telling him that Cass was probably right already, but he didn't like to be wrong, and wasn't going to admit to it easily.

Unfazed by James's violent tone, Cass kept a cool smile, temporarily distracted from her own problems. "Because, Lily cares for her sister, whether Petunia returns the feelings or not. Poor Tig, stuck with a big heart. Even though Petunia hates Lily, Lils – I mean, Tig," Cass corrected quickly as James shot her a glare, "wants to try to patch their relationship by being there for Petunia and showing she cares, even if Petunia never accepts her."

James was silent for a moment, letting Cass's words sink into his mind before responding. '_Damn, she's right._' James offered a weak smile to mirror Cass's. "Made a mess of things then, haven't I?"

"A little. Although, you've come a long way James. You used to be even worse." Cass replied sympathetically, though a smug smile played on her lips.

"You know, Cassidy Flemmings, I believe I've just realized why Lily considers you to be such an amazing friend." James commented after a moment of companionable silence.

"Have you, James Potter?" Cass replied. "Why did you think Lily and I were friends before?"

"Previously, I thought you were a mentally perturbed child who Lily kept contact with so you could have human association." James replied formally, though he broke out into a grin as Cass leaned over to punch him playfully in the chest.

"So now that you've realized that you were wrong and that it is you, in fact, who Lily keeps around so you can benefit from human association, what are you going to do?" Cass asked, quirking a brow.

"I intend to solve all our problems." James replied confidently.

"How so, King Prat?"

"Well… Wait a minute – 'King Prat'?" James asked with an amused smile.

"Your new nickname, silly. Now please, enlighten me as to how you will solve our problems?"

"Firstly, yours – you need to talk to Lily about this Sirius-issue, correct?"

"Yeah…" Cass agreed, frowning as she tried to figure out what he was getting at.

"And I need to apologize to Lily, correct?"

"Yeah…" Cass agreed again.

"Here's the plan. How good are you at faking other people's writing?"

* * *

Sirius hummed softly to himself as he snuck into the Slytherin common room, pleased that Lily had given him something to do, so he could keep his mind off Cass. It scared him he was still thinking about Cass and her reaction to the 'incident' at breakfast. 

He had enjoyed the kiss, and knew it wasn't an accident. He had meant to kiss her, and he wanted to kiss her again, but it scared him how much he cared about Cassidy Flemmings. Suddenly he was in James's shoes, falling head over heels for a girl – it had never happened to _him_ before. He was Sirius Black, the infamous bachelor who never stayed with one girl any longer than two weeks.

Quickly he fell silent as a door up the stairs creaked open, and Severus Snape marched down the stairs, his cloaks billowing behind him, and out of the common room, muttering quietly to himself. Sirius smirked from beneath James's invisibility cloak, standing silently in the centre of the common room.

It wasn't an especially nice room, lacking the warmth of Gryffindor Tower. Located in the dungeons and discovered by the Marauders in their third year, it was dimly lit by wrought iron lamps that hung overhead, and furnished in a dull, dark green. On the walls grew a green mould or fungus, Sirius wasn't sure what.

Safe beneath the invisibility cloak, Sirius completed his task for Lily – pouring a transparent, powdery substance all over the couches and chairs of the common room. He had _no_ idea what this powder would do exactly, and Lily refused to tell him, only asking that he take several wizard cameras to breakfast tomorrow morning, since she would miss the effects of her prank, being away at the wedding.

Sirius trusted Lily anyways, and had already stolen away to Hogsmeade to buy several cameras. His task completed, Sirius too left the common room, anticipating what breakfast would bring.

It had taken Lily quite a while to prepare for the prank, almost three weeks had passed since the Quidditch game, and she had spent all her extra time looking up complex charms in the library – but it was finally done.

The next morning, Sirius woke up late. Cursing himself as he leaped down the stairs into the common room, yanking on a shirt as he went with cameras dangling from his wrist, he arrived outside the Great Hall in record timing. The hall was roaring with laughter, and Sirius was quite concerned he had missed the prank. But when he saw the scene in the hall, a smug smile appeared on his face, and he began to snap several photos of the Slytherins, who were looking about hopelessly for someone to save them.

Lily's powdery substance was some sort of a timed releasing mechanism for a an old charm she had found in 'Charm Your Enemies' an ancient book at least twelve hundred pages long. The charm, once placed upon all of Slytherin house caused the name of the first Gryffindor that particular Slytherin spoke with after being charmed to appear in wispy red letters about their head, along with an amusing message.

The situation was quite amusing, as Bellatrix Black, Sirius's own cousin, had exchanged words with a first year Gryffindor named Dandy Leon. Thus, above her head floated the message: "Dandy makes me randy!" Snape had spoken with Arthur Weasley. "I love Arthur Weasley!" Both boys were exceptionally embarrassed. Sirius had used up three cameras before he glanced about the table for his friends. Cass, Abby, and Remus sat together, laughing happily. Sirius joined them, grinning manically.

"She deserves to be a Marauder for this, Moony!" Sirius yelled amidst the laughter as Rodolphus Lestrange joined Snape in having a homosexual message, "Alex Jordan makes my world go round."

"Indeed!" Remus agreed. "She'll have to be an honorary member, and we'll need a nickname."

"Hey! Why can't we be Marauders?" Abby protested, feigning a hurt look.

"Because you're not special enough." Sirius replied immaturely, with a whiny kid-like tone.

"Well if _that's_ how it is!" Abby declared loudly, as if that were a veritable response.

"Where's James?" Remus interrupted, not in the mood for Abby and Sirius to get into another one of their keep-thinking-of-smart-comebacks-till-the-other-can't conversations.

"Dunno." Sirius replied, though he was now glancing about the Hall keenly, looking for his best mate.

"He left." Cass said nonchalantly, biting into her toast.

"What?!? Left for _where_ exactly??" Sirius demanded.

"Not supposed to tell." Cass replied coolly, sipping some pumpkin juice.

"_Not supposed to tell_?" Sirius replied scathingly. "So he'd tell _you_ but not his _best mate_?"

"S'ppose so." Cass replied evenly, trying to ignore Sirius's harsh tone and picture how Lily was probably feeling at that moment. _'Probably happy. Very happy.'_

* * *

At that exact moment, however, Lily was rather depressed. Rain was thundering down against her parents' tiny house in Surrey, and the large amount of people within the house was causing the windows to steam over. Fat women (Vernon's relatives) were bustling about in tacky lilac bridesmaids dresses, complaining about their hair or how horrible Lily was. Luckily, the feeling was mutual, so Lily didn't mind _as_ much. Petunia was shrieking about her hair and her bouquet, which had conveniently fallen apart, and the only thing Lily wanted was to be with her friends.

"Lily?"

Lily looked up from the reply she was writing to Cass to see Charlie, peeking his head through a crack in the doorway of her room.

"Yes, Charlie?"

"Mum says you ought to get ready now, Petty's gonna 'blow a casket' any minute if you don't. Dad says he hopes she does and that it'll knock some sense into her and she won't want to marry Vernon anymore and Mum says not to listen to Dad."

Lily grinned. "Thanks Charlie. You about ready?"

Charlie opened the door completely, revealing that his small, wiry form was clothed in a formal looking tuxedo, though his bow tie was slightly crooked. Lily smiled and pulled herself off her bed, padding over in her socked feet to her brother and gently adjusting his tie until it was straight.

"Is James coming?" Charlie asked bluntly, picking at his collar, which he found most uncomfortable.

"No, Charlie." Lily replied softly, and somewhat remorsefully.

"Why not?" Charlie persisted.

"Petty didn't even want _me_ to come, Charlie. She hates me. D'you think she'd want my friends to come?"

"Probably not." Charlie admitted. "But Petty doesn't _hate_ you."

"I'm afraid she does, Charlie." Lily said quietly, shutting the door to allow them some privacy, and slipping out of her pajamas and into her hideous lilac bridesmaid dress. Luckily, Petunia had talked her mother out of making Lily the maid of honour, so Lily didn't have to wear the not-matching lime green outfit selected for the role.

"She doesn't. She told me. She _hates_ how lucky you are. She hates that you're a witch and she's not, how you have so many good friends and she doesn't, how you have a boyfriend like James and she has Vernon…" Charlie said quietly as he zipped up the back of the dress. It was strapless and fell to the ground, made of silk and fitted to each bridesmaid's body – it would have been quite a pretty design had it not been for the disgusting selection in colour.

"Then why is she _marrying_ that oaf when she could do so much better?" Lily protested, forgetting she was talking to her ten-year-old, soon to be eleven, brother.

Charlie shrugged, returning to the mindset of a normal ten-year-old boy. Lily sighed softly, and the two spent a few moments in companionable silence until a loud shriek erupted from downstairs. It was Petunia, and judging from the volume of her voice, she was in the living room.

"IT'S HIM!!" Petunia shrieked again.

Her mind lost in thoughts of the Wizarding World, Lily immediately assumed that by 'him', Petunia meant Voldemort. Immediately she grabbed her wand from her school things and hopped down the stairs as fast as she could in the dress. Busy with thoughts of what exactly she was to do, it didn't cross Lily's mind that Petunia didn't know of Voldemort's existence. Sure enough, Petunia was standing the living room, pointing out the window at a cloaked figure that was approaching the house.

Lily made her way to the front door and stepped out into the rain, her hair falling out of its up-do almost immediately and falling in chunky wet strands around her face. Wand out and pointed in the direction of the cloaked figure, Lily stepped forward, ready to duel if she had to. She could hear Petunia ushering Vernon's relatives from the windows, and Charlie asking her mum repeatedly what Lily was doing. She had no clue. Was she actually going to duel with this Death Eater? Or what if this figure was Voldemort himself?

"Lily?" The figure spoke in disbelief, and the voice was familiar.

"James?"

Dropping her wand to the ground, she ran over to him, coming to an abrupt halt right in front of him, ignoring the grass and mud stains that now covered her dress. James grinned happily and removed the hood from his face, Lily now recognizing that it was his school cloak.

"Any reason why you were pointing your wand at me so menacingly?" James asked innocently.

"Well, aside from the fact that I think you're a huge prat – "

"And I agree with you on that point." James interjected, causing Lily's cross look to fade from her face. "You do?"

"Yeah. I'm really sorry. I was a total prat. Enough of one for Cass to call me 'King Prat', anyways." James admitted, causing Lily to laugh. "I should have seen that you're trying to make an effort with your sister and supported you about it."

Lily smiled and pulled James into a hug, ignoring the cold sensation as the water from his cloak seeped through her dress to her skin.

"What was the other reason for the wand?" James asked after a minute of silence.

"Err… I thought you were Voldemort." Lily explained quietly.

"_Voldemort? Me?_" James asked incredulously.

"Well I was still in Wizarding-World-mode, and then Petunia shrieks 'IT'S HIM!' since she doesn't like you, and I just… wasn't thinking."

"Taking after Sirius with that then." James said with a smile.

"I s'ppose." Lily admitted. "But if you tell him I agreed, I'll never speak to you again. Any reason why you're _here_ of all places, in the rain, when you should be at school?"

"Well – "

"Wait a minute! _How_ did you get out of school? I mean, the teachers didn't _let_ you, did they?" Lily interrupted, looking up at her boyfriend in disbelief and sounding slightly hysterical.

"One question at a time, please Lils." James replied calmly. "Firstly, I am '_here_ of all places' to see you and apologize. And it just so happens that Cass needs you and is very skilled at faking other people's writing."

"Cass did _what_?"

"She wrote a letter to Dumbledore, pretending to be you about how you needed my support at your sister's wedding because she hates you so much and how isolated and alone you feel. It was quite heart wrenching to read, of course. Then Dumbledore calls me to his office and informs me of all this, but since I couldn't floo to your house, I flooed to the Leaky Cauldron and flew on my broom from there. Oh, happy Valentines Day… I think it's wet…" James stuttered, retrieving a damp package from his pocket.

"James…" Lily began, in a you-_really_-shouldn't-have tone.

"Open it." James persisted.

Timidly, Lily took the package from him and began to peel away the layers of wet paper until only a box remained. Just as gently, Lily lifted the lid of the box. A confused look of distaste spread across her face, and James looked crestfallen.

"You don't like it?" he asked quietly.

"What kind of joke is this?" Lily demanded, ignoring his obviously hurt tone and shoving the box at him. Inside, was a dungbomb.

"But… This isn't what I got you!" James offered weakly, trying to explain.

Lily's face softened slightly, if only because she hated being mad at James. "It isn't?"

"No… Damn it! Sirius must have switched it!" James said angrily, his face heating up with anger. "I'm so sorry Lily, he's being a prick because Cass is mad at him and – "

"Why is Cass mad at him?" Lily interrupted, looking apprehensive. "What did that idiot do now?"

"He… err… kissed her." James said with an awkward smile.

"_WHAT?!?_" Lily roared, "Then why is she _mad_?"

"He… err – "

"I swear James, if you say 'he… err…' one more time I will kill you." Lily interrupted, agitated by how he was informing her.

"He said it was a mistake."

"_WHAT?!?_ I'm going to _kill_ the bloody tosser!" Lily had never looked so angry, and James could only be happy she wasn't mad at him.

"Lils, calm down. She'll be fine. I have a letter from her, and you two can just have a girl chat when you get back..." James said as calmly as possible. He was actually quite terrified by the look on Lily's face and was relieved when it softened into a look of admiration. '_Someone's moody today!'_

And she was. With Petunia getting married to Vernon, Lily's diminishing relationship with her sister, and the constant worry that her family might be the next set of muggle casualties, Lily was highly strung at the moment. "I'm sorry I got so mad. I love you." She said quietly, hugging James tightly.

James grinned. "I love you t – "

"LILY MARIE CORDELIA EVANS! GET IN HERE THIS _INSTANT!_" Lily's mother roared angrily from the doorstep. "You too, James dear."

James gave Lily a look of utter disbelief and amusement. "Your middle name is _Cordelia_?"

"_One_ of them," Lily corrected, "Yes."

James tried to hide his laughter by coughing loudly as Lily led him toward her house.

"Oh look, Lily, you've gone and gotten James sick standing out in the rain like that." Mrs. Evans muttered as she shuffled James into the hallway and out of the rain. "Pick up your wand and come inside and dry off. Petunia might pass out if she sees you like this."

Lily sighed, and obediently retrieved her wand before returning to the main hall, where Mrs. Evans was fussing over James, ignoring Vernon's relatives as they watched curiously from the stairs.

"Now, I'll find something dry for you James, and of course you can borrow one of Michael's suits for the wedding…" Mrs. Evans began rambling, taking off James's cloak and trying to hang it in the closet.

"Mum," Lily protested. "I _don't_ think James _wants_ to come to the wedding."

"Don't speak nonsense, Lily, of course he does! Don't you James?"

Both Evans women were giving him expectant looks, waiting for him to agree with her, so James did what any male in his situation would do – smiled stupidly and began to play for time. "Well… really I don't mind either way… Petunia probably won't want me to come though…"

"Nonsense!" Mrs. Evans said with a smile.

* * *

Petunia Evans, soon to be Petunia Dursley, was holding one of the tackiest weddings James had ever been to. James, the only son of well-known, affluent Aurors, had been to many weddings – both Wizarding ones and Muggle-themed ones. 

He sat uncomfortably in the hard pew at the local church, trying to adjust the collar of Mr. Evans's tuxedo and not create too much of a disturbance as the service progressed.

The entire sanctuary was covered in bright pink bows and streamers. The groom, a large portly man that James had casually met but never actually spoken to was wearing a black jacket and purple shirt with a tacky spotted bow tie. All the bridesmaids were in disgustingly bright neon green dresses, and Petunia's dress, which puffed out so much in the skirt it nearly hid her left little to be desired. But Lily, as she stood at the front in her now clean and dry lilac outfit, looked absolutely stunning to James. Her hair was in messes of curls that fell down her back, and she easily outshone the bride.

Occasionally, she would glance back and catch his eye, giving him a quick smile before returning her attention to the ceremony in front of her. Each time she did, James's heart would flutter, and he'd be thankful all over again that she had forgiven him. Man, he had it bad.

"Thank god that's over." Lily groaned as they drove to the reception, sitting in the back of the Evans's car with Charlie, Mr. and Mrs. Evans seated in the front. Charlie nodded in agreement.

"Now Lily…" Mrs. Evans warned, although she stopped at that. She too was quite relieved it was over.

"_Yes_, Mother dearest?" Lily asked innocently.

"Don't rib on your sister like that." Mrs. Evans replied, trying to sound stern though it came out as more of a request.

The Evans family car arrived at the location of the reception quite promptly. It was a moderately sized hall, decorated in the same tacky pink bows and streamers. The dance floor was quite a scene, as neon green meshed with purple and other, more normal wedding colours.

"I hope she's getting the photos done in black and white." James muttered in Lily's ear as they sat at one of the tables near the edge of the dance floor, causing Lily to laugh.

"Lily?"

Lily turned to see Mario standing over her with an unreadable expression. She smiled nervously and stood. "Mario… Nice to see you… You remember James?"

Mario nodded, his face still blank, waving off the hand James extended as he too, stood. "Why didn't you reply to my letters?" he asked bluntly.

"What letters?" James asked with a confused expression.

"Mario, I have a boyfriend and it didn't seem appropriate – " Lily began softly, before James interrupted.

"_What_ letters?" James repeated.

"Lily, you _can't_ be over me. I _know_, because I'm not over you." Mario said breathlessly, ignoring James.

"Lily, what the _hell_ is this kid talking about?" James demanded.

"It's _true_, isn't it Lily? Tell him that you're still in love with me!" Mario demanded.

"Well… Mario's been sending me letters since Laurel's funeral… They're weren't _appropriate_" Lily paused to send a disapproving look at Mario, "for an ex-girlfriend, let alone one who was seeing someone else. So I didn't reply to them."

"He sent you _love_ letters?" James asked in disbelief, no longer trying to control the volume of his voice. "And you didn't _tell_ me?!?"

"I…" Lily began, suddenly at a loss for words. '_Fuck._'

* * *

**Coming up!  
- What happens with Lily & James? Will they ever get a break just to be happy?  
- What happens with Cass & Sirius? Will Lily be able to sort it out?**


	21. We're Done

**Sirius's Top Ten**

**I know, I know, it's an actual chapter! I am sooooooooooooo sorry that this took so long! So long, in fact, that I'm quite sure that no one actually reads this anymore. I was in Europe for most of August this summer and at my cottage for the rest (no internet connection) so I couldn't update at all, and this chapter was hard to write, but I think it turned out okay and works with what I've got planned next. I have a weird idea on how to end this, but… I'm not sure. We'll see. L Thanks to everyone who actually reviewed.**

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**Chapter 21: We're Done**

"I _knew_ he would react like this! I mean, honestly, is it really his business that some old boyfriend is writing me letters? Honestly, it's not like I reply! And I he should _know_ I love him! And getting all pissed off because I wasn't around for Valentine's Day? Honestly, how immature can he be? I honestly don't know why I bothered with him." Lily vented angrily, sitting on her bed in the Gryffindor sixth-year girls dormitory. Cass and Abby sat with her on the opposite end, listening patiently. Cass kept putting up a finger whenever Lily said 'honestly', which seemed to be her favourite word to rant with.

"That's four." Cass announced.

"Really?" Abby replied, cocking her head to the side in confusion. "I had five."

"Can we _please_ pay attention to the issues in my life?" Lily asked icily. "Honestly, you call yourselves my best mates."

"See, there's five!" Cass said with a pleased grin, before it faded as she caught a glare from Lily. "Well, _honestly_ Lily, it would be easier to err… 'pay attention to the issues in your life' if you told us what happened."

Lily's face went blank. "Oh."

Abby grinned. "I'm sure it wasn't that bad. Start from what we know. James came to your house to apologize for being a prat about Valentine's Day. What next?"

"He apologized. I accepted. Then he came to the wedding, which was horrible by the way. Then we went to the reception, and then Mario turns up. And he starts asking about the letters he's been sending me, you know, the 'I still love you and I know you still love me' letters where he's being an arrogant prat."

"You always seem to fall for them." Abby commented with a sly smile. "Arrogant prats I mean."

Lily paused her story telling for a moment. "I _do not_, Abigail!"

Abby laughed. "You _do so_, Lily Marie _Cordelia_!" Lily winced, and Abby continued. "Let's see, there was Oliver, but he doesn't count since you never really were 'with' him. Then Mario, who you just said was an arrogant prat, and you've always thought James was one too."

"Shut it." Lily replied snippily, unable to find a counter-argument. "_Anyways_, James gets all pissed off for not telling me. And he…"

Flashback

_"He sent you love letters?" James asked in disbelief, no longer trying to control the volume of his voice. "And you didn't tell me?!?"_

_"I…" Lily began, suddenly at a loss for words. 'Fuck.'_

_"You what, Lily?" James asked sharply. _

_Mario was silent, holding a slight smile._

_"I didn't think it mattered. And it doesn't. Look, I'm sorry if you're mad about this James, but you know I love you – "_

_"No, actually, I don't know."_

End Flashback

(A/N: Sorry I put a flashback, I thought it would be better that Lily rambling some more.)

"And then he left." Lily finished glumly.

"Wow." Abby said softly.

"What do you mean, _wow_?" Lily demanded angrily.

"Well Tig… You've both messed up. You _should _have told him about Mario's letters – and I would have told you to but I assumed you had." Cass added quickly as Lily opened her mouth to argue. "And James completely overreacted, he should trust you."

"Exactly!" Lily yelled, thrusting her fist up into the air and ignoring Cass's comment about her being wrong as well. "He _should_ trust me! _I'm _the only one who's allowed to have trust issues! I mean, he started going after me only because of a dare! A game! _I_ get to have trust issues, not him!"

"Well… yeah." Abby agreed quietly. There was no real point in arguing with Lily about this unless she wanted Lily mad at her, which she didn't. A mad Lily was a hard thing to work with; it took ages before she forgave you. James was the only one who seemed to have some sort of gift when it came to Lily forgiving him.

"And he's so immature! Getting mad about Valentine's Day. And Cass had to help him come to his senses and then he came and said sorry after telling me about how Cass had forged a letter to get me back sooner so we could talk and he could apolo – " Lily stopped mid-sentence and her eyes widened.

"If your eyes widen any further, your eyes might pop out, Tig." Cass said with a smile.

"Cass… You and Sirius…" Lily said quietly.

"Oh yeah. That." Cass muttered, looking quite displeased to be reminded of her incident with Sirius.

"Come on, tell us what happened." Abby said softly, rubbing Cass's back as Cass's eyes welled up with tears again. Cass shook her head, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"No. It's stupid. And I'm fine." Cass insisted, shifting away from Abby's reach.

"You're obviously not fine, Cass." Lily said quietly. "James told me that Sirius kissed you. When?"

"At breakfast on Valentines Day." Cass answered shortly.

"And then he said it was a mistake?" Abby asked softly.

"Yeah." Cass nodded slightly. "He said he must have gotten hit by an arrow or summat."

"Aww Cass, I'm so sorry." Lily said softly, as both she and Abby enveloped Cass in a hug. "I mean, here I am ranting about James…"

"They're both pricks." Abby said loyally. "Unless… that you're going to get back with James?"

"I've apologized for not telling him, there's not much else I can do. And if we needed help from other people to patch things up, then it obviously wouldn't have worked." Lily said quietly, tightening her hug around Cass.

"So that's it then." Cass declared finally. "Aside from Remus, we are officially done with the Marauders."

"Agreed." Abby seconded.

"Agreed." Lily finalized. "We're done."

-----  
  
Only across the common room, four boys were having a similar conversation, minus the tears, which were too feminine, and the tight hugs, which were too… uncomfortable. James sat on his bed, Sirius paced the floor amid scattered items of clothing and pranking equipment, Remus sat on his bed, and Peter ate his chocolate frogs.

"I mean, _can you believe her_?" James demanded angrily. "She didn't _tell_ me that her creep of an ex-boyfriend was writing to her!"

"She probably thought you'd get mad and react like this. And she was right." Remus said calmly from his bed, safe from being strangled by James.

"But she didn't tell me!" James persisted.

"Did she apologize?" Remus asked.

"N – yes." James muttered quietly.

"Exactly." Remus said knowledgably. "You completely overreacted."

A look of realization came over James's face. "Shite. I really did. I left right while she was trying to explain."

"What was she saying?" Remus asked; as he cracked open a book, finding his good deed of the day completed.

"She apologized and then said 'you know I love you' and I just said 'No, actually, I don't know.' And then I left." James said somberly.

"Well that was smart." Remus said with a slight sarcastic tone, knowing James wouldn't get mad. He couldn't, considering how much damage control Remus had just performed.

James nodded. "God I'm an idiot. My temper… I just… It got out of control again."

"It often does." Sirius remarked dryly. "You're right, you _are_ an idiot."

"That coming from the guy who totally screwed with Cass Flemmings." James said coolly.

"I didn't 'screw' with Cass." Sirius snapped.

"Then what _would_ you call it? What's another word for completely leading a girl on?" The volume of James's voice was rising dangerously again.

"I _wasn't_ leading Cass on." Sirius persisted, though his voice stayed relatively even.

"Then what _do_ you call kissing a girl – who fancies you – then telling her it was a mistake?" James snapped.

Peter, who hadn't realized the question was somewhat rhetoric, began listing off words he thought might be appropriate. "How about _tricking_? Or _screwing with_? Or _deceiving_? _Misleading_?"

"Shut it, Wormtail!" Sirius and James both yelled simultaneously.

Though saying the same thing at the same time would normally cause the two friends to grin or laugh, it did little to change the situation this time.

"Okay, fine!" Sirius agreed. "I _am_ an arse! But at least I'm not as bad as _you_!"

"Excuse me?" James said huffily.

"I'm not as bad as you." Sirius repeated. "I'm not an insecure, jealous arse who just walked out on the best thing that's ever happened to him!"

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By the next morning, the atmosphere in the Great Hall much resembled that of 'the Great Freeze'. No one was talking to the Marauders, aside from Abby who only spoke to Remus, and no one was talking to the Marauder Troupe either. It had been hard to miss the yelling and crying on either sides of Gryffindor Tower and it had circulated through the rest of the school quite quickly. Though the details on Lily and James's break-up were quite vague, everyone now knew about Cass and Sirius's kiss on Valentine's Day (if they had missed it) and that the Marauder Troupe was now the ex-Marauder Troupe.

Lily sat quietly between Cass and Belinda, with Abby and Oliver across from her. It felt odd not sitting next to James, as she had grown accustomed to it, but she would adjust again. Cass was stirring her cereal mindlessly, and Abby had her nose in a Potions book. Belinda smiled awkwardly.

"So," Belinda said wobbly, bravely trying to make conversation. "Anything exciting on today?"

"Not really." Cass replied softly, before looking up to see Amos approach her. Her face paled slightly.

"Hi, Cass. Can we talk?" Amos asked, sliding in next to her.

Cass nodded mutely.

"I heard about Black kissing you. And I wanted you to know that… it's okay. I really don't mind, because obviously you didn't want him to. So we're okay. Okay?" Amos spoke softly, and kept looking at her with concern. Cass nodded again.

"Thanks for understanding Amos. Want to take a walk tonight?" Cass asked quietly. Amos smiled and nodded, and Lily couldn't help but wince.

Her face then grew into more of a grimace as James entered the hall, and approached her almost immediately. Amos moved out of the way, and Lily reminded herself to kick him for it later.

"Can we talk Lily? Please?" James asked quietly, shooting dirty looks at people watching them, which was pretty much the entire hall.

"No, we can't James." Lily replied with an unsteady voice. She felt Cass's hand take hers under the table, and give her a reassuring squeeze.

"Lily, please, I was an idiot. Can't we just talk for a moment?" James persisted.

"No." Came the short reply.

Much like he had when he first asked her out, James grabbed her other hand and yanked her to her feet, dragging her out of the hallway as she stumbled behind him, her face flushed. Easily more than a hundred eyes watched them leave; Cass stood up angrily to stop James, only to be pulled back down by Oliver, surprising both Cass and Abby, and his girlfriend.

"Let him talk to her, at least." He reasoned.

"JAMES POTTER, LET ME GO!" Lily screamed, her feet sliding on the marble floors of the castle as James continued to drag her from the Great Hall. Finally finding a reasonable spot, he stopped, causing Lily to nearly keel over.

"We need to talk. It's my fault. I was jealous, mad you didn't tell me…" For the first time in his life, James fumbled for the words.

"I apologized for not telling you James. It was wrong, I should have. But you… You should be able to trust me with these things, and you obviously don't." Lily said as lightly as possible, though her eyes were starting to well up.

"I do! I _do_ trust you!" James insisted.

"No, you don't James. And I don't understand why. _I'm_ the one who should be insecure." Lily continued, ignoring James's protests.

"_You_ should be insecure?" James repeated, looking somewhat confused.

"Yes! Weren't _you_ the one who started this whole thing for a bloody contest? Our relationship is based on a _bloody contest_! If _you_ hadn't been so arrogant and started the _bloody contest_ then this whole thing wouldn't have happened! You only started _talking_ to me because of a _bloody contest_! How do I know you even _really_ like me and this isn't just another contest? How?!? SEE, I GET TO BE INSECURE!" Lily yelled the last bit, tears beginning to flow down her cheeks. James moved closer in attempts to wipe them away, but she stepped back quickly.

"Lily…" he said softly, reaching out to her.

"No, James. We're done. I just, can't take this. You? Insecure? Honestly, I just can't."

Lily walked only a few steps before she broke into a full-out run, away from the one boy she had been sure she was in love with.

"I'm insecure because I'm head over heels for you, Lily. I'm not good enough and I was worried you'd realize that and leave me. And you did." James Potter spoke hoarsely to the empty hallway.

"Pipe up ol' chap!" A man from one of the paintings called. "There are other fish in the sea!"

"But she's the only one for me." James finished glumly.

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**Oooh, what happens next? What do you WANT to happen next? Review and find out! **


	22. Reminisce and Move On Day

**Sirius's Top Ten**

Sorry the format for this chapter's so messed up, something's wrong with the QuickEdit thingy. This chapter is all about the memories and how they all feel now. A few quick fluffy AbbyRemus snippets too. Takes place about two months later. Big jump, I know, but nothing else was really going to happen till now. I've decided I'm _probably_ going to do a sequel for the group's 7th year, and if not, I'll make sure Lily and James get together by the end of the year a different way than I have planned. I'm just not sure if I'm going to have enough time to update and not keep you guys hanging.

**californiagurl** – I know, I'm absolutely horrible! This chapter came relatively quickly though, didn't it?

**Rose-Mariann-Johnston** – Don't worry, it will happen eventually! Thanks for reading!

**sirius'sheelah** **- **Aww, thanks! I can only apologize time and again for how long the last chapter took. :)

**PoertyOutLoud** – That would be a really cute idea, but I've got something else planned at the moment… gasp Thanks for all your lovely comments (i'm sure u have a more amazing idea, b/c all ur chapters are!) you really are _too_ nice. I just like to write whatever I'm in the mood for (normally goofy, light-hearted stories), and I'm glad so many people are enjoying them.

**FrostQueen4Eva** – salutes Aye aye mam!

**TeenTypist** – I am honestly your number 1 fan! Your stories are so great, and you still read mine!! I don't think this ending is as good.

**Jen Riddle** – Well thanks for reviewing now then! :)

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**Chapter 22: Reminisce and Move On Day**

March and April passed quickly by, with nothing changing between the two groups of friends. Abby and Remus tried to spend the evenings together, when their other friends were busy with homework or quidditch. Lily and Cass spent all their time doing schoolwork and reading up for NEWTs, even though they didn't have them for another year. By mid-May, they had both drawn up study schedules that started in September, and still refused to speak or have anything to do with Sirius and James. Sirius and James, when they weren't trying to get Cass and Lily to talk to them, began pranking again, with renewed vigor. The school began to expect at least a prank every three or four days, and though two months or so had passed since the Valentines Day it all went wrong, gossip about the four still flew about the school.

"_I_ heard that Lily dumped James for being insecure." The school gossip, Bertha Jorkins insisted.

"_James Potter_, _insecure_?" Bertha's friend Sarah said skeptically. "Please. I heard that _James_ dumped Lily because she wouldn't shag him."

"It's rather depressing that some people don't have anything better to do than talk about other people's lives, isn't it Tig?" Cass said loudly as she and Lily passed Bertha and Sarah on their way to the Gryffindor table for breakfast.

Both Bertha and Sarah blushed, and several people at the table snickered.

Taking their seats next to Abby, Cass and Lily began piling food on their plates, while Abby glanced up nonchalantly. "Sleep in, ladies?"

Lily shrugged non-commitally. "So?"

"What on _earth_ could you possibly be doing that would keep you up so late?" Abby asked incredulously.

"We were working on our study schedules." Lily replied simply.

"_And_ avoiding Amos." Cass added as she took a bite into her buttered croissant.

"You stayed up late working on study schedules – for next _year_ - and avoiding your boyfriend, Cass?" Abby asked, looking quite perturbed.

"Yeah, so?" Lily replied, rooting through her bag.

"Okay, it's been two months, and too long. You're both not over James and Sirius, and you _need_ to be." Abby announced. "Today is Reminisce and Move On Day."

Instead of arguing, Lily just nodded in agreement. "Okay, how do we '_reminisce and move on_'?"

"Well, today's ideal because there's a quidditch match this afternoon. We're going to go over every aspect about your relationships and remember the good things about it to get it out of your system." Abby said knowledgably, pulling out a piece of scrap parchment and writing out things that Cass, Sirius, James, and Lily used to do together.

"_No way_." Cass said, shaking her head furiously. She _definitely_ didn't care about Sirius enough to spend an _entire_ day getting over him.

"Cass…" Lily said softly. "Come on, it wouldn't hurt. Abby's right, we've become complete scholar freaks trying to avoid this."

"You mean complete _nerds_, right?" Abby corrected.

"If you _must_ use that word." Lily conceded.

Cass shook her head immaturely. "No."

Lily put on a pouty face and whined. "Puh-lease??"

Cass smiled. "I don't _need_ to, but I will for you, Tig."

"If that helps you sleep at night." Abby said with a grin. It was nice to have her two best friends back, acting somewhat like themselves again. She had been quite scared when they went into full on 'nerd mode'. Lily had dropped almost all her out-of-school activities, Cass, for once, cared only about school, and they hardly talked. All Abby could hope was that this day of reminiscing would help them get back to their old selves.

Just then, the Marauders entered the Hall, Sirius, Remus, and James clad in their quidditch uniforms. James didn't look like he was in a very good mood, his brow was furrowed in concentration, like it was before all games, but their was something else up too.

"Gryffindor team!" He barked. "Let's go!"

Bryan Bell, one of Gryffindor's chasers, who was sitting across from Lily, groaned loudly. "Not _already_." He complained.

Lily gave an amused smile, but he just glared at her. "Don't look so prissy Evans, it's completely your fault. James has become a crazed… _Quidditch Nazi_. Ever since whatever happened between you two in February."

The smile on Lily's face disappeared quickly. Cass glared right back at Bryan though. "Or maybe he just realized that _some_ members of his team needed a lot of extra practice." Cass sneered. "Not naming any names of course." She added, before going into a coughing fit, her 'coughs' sounding a lot like 'Bryan' or 'Bell'.

Bryan just shook his head and stood, joining the rest of the quidditch team as they left the hall to the applause of the Gryffindor table.

Most of the table had heard the exchange between Lily, Cass, and Bryan, and Sirius and Remus had not missed out.

"I think he's right Prongs." Sirius said slowly as he trudged behind James out to the quidditch pitch.

"Who is?" James asked distractedly.

Sirius sighed, wondering when James would be knocked back into his senses. Although they'd started pranking again, James was always somewhat out there, and had thrown himself into quidditch. "Bell. What he said about Li-Evans."

"I don't think he is." James replied testily.

"Well _I_ do." Sirius persisted. "It's about time you got over Evans, Prongsie. I mean, I know you really thought she was special but she's just one girl – "

"She's the _only_ girl for me, Padfoot." James replied snappily.

"Yes, of course, but you've _tried_ to get her to talk to you, and it hasn't worked. Why can't you just give up?" Sirius continued. "I mean, she's made it pretty clear she just can't put up with you, and… I just hate to see you waste your time mate."

"I love her, Padfoot." James replied simply.

Sirius groaned. "Yes, but you _could_ love someone _else_, as well, you know."

"No, I couldn't. And it wouldn't be fair to do that to someone, pretend to love them when I couldn't." James said coolly.

"Since when do _you_ have morals?" Sirius asked playfully.

James didn't see the humour. "You _know_ I have morals, Padfoot."

"'Course you do, Prongsie." Sirius agreed. "I was only joking. But then again, you are the one who only started dating the love of your life for a contest…"

James groaned. "Don't remind me."

Sirius grinned mischievously, and began to sing. "You're an arse! You're an arse! La la la la!"

"Pah." James muttered. "Not your best, mate."

"Oh?" Sirius looked inquisitive. "Which one _is_ my best then?"

James frowned for a moment. "I rather liked your 'Cassidy Flemmings loves me' one."

Instantaneously both boys broke out into the songs, Sirius continuing his 'You're an arse' and James belting out 'Cassidy Flemmings loves Sirius Black' just as loudly.

"Shut it, both of you." Remus said serenely.

-------

"Look, Amos… I _do_ care for you, but I don't… I think it's time we broke up, we're… It's not you, it's me." Cass smiled sympathetically.

Amos nodded gravely. "Yeah, I kinda thought this was coming."

"I'd love for us to be friends though." Cass said with a smile, causing Lily and Abby, who were standing behind her in the Entrance Hall on the way to the pitch and listening to their conversation. Amos nodded glumly and left with his friends, and immediately Abby and Lily swarmed Cass.

"God, you're bad at that." Lily commented, tugging at her denim jacket.

"I am _not_!" Cass protested.

"I agree with Lily, you're horrible." Abby grinned.

"How?!?"

"You used two of the worst break-up phrases in one break-up." Abby explained knowledgably, Lily nodding in agreement.

"Did I?" Cass asked, looking quite clueless.

"Umm, '_it's not you, it's me_' and '_I'd love for us to be friends_?' How could you be worse?" Lily laughed.

"Well what was I supposed to say?! That really I find him an annoying pain in my arse whose kisses are complete crap compared to Sirius Black?" Realizing what she had just said, Cass clamped a hand over her mouth, but Abby nodded encouragingly.

"No, no! This is good! Let it all out, Cass!"

"What are you? A therapist?" Cass asked sardonically.

"Remember Cass, we're _supposed_ to be reminiscing and getting over boys today." Lily said dreamily, pretending she was some spaced out weirdo.

"AHHHH!!!" Cass screamed, running from the Entrance Hall down toward the quidditch pitch.

------

"Remember our stupid sign? The one with all the messages?" Lily asked with a smile as she, Abby, and Cass sat in the stands, waiting for the Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw match to begin.

Cass laughed. "Oh yeah, and for the Slytherin match, you added 'Let's Kick Some Esche!' Remember?!"

"That was also the match where James crashed into you." Abby said somberly. Immediately her two friends' faces dampened slightly.

"Had to bring that up, didn't you?" Cass asked quietly, Lily nodded in agreement.

"It'll be better to get it out in the open." Abby insisted.

"Fine." Lily accepted. "When James hit me, I remember thinking I was glad the last thing I would see before I died was his face. And then when I knew I'd be fine, I couldn't blame him at all. He did it enough for the both of us. I think I really figured out how much I cared for him then."

Abby nodded, a pleased smile on her face, and Cass groaned as she caught sight of Abby's look. "Abs, if you say _anything_ along the lines of 'and how does that make you _feel_?' I will have to kill you."

Lily laughed. Abby was right though, it felt a lot better getting everything off her chest. After a moment of silence, Cass spoke up again. "Remember how concerned James was when Lily wasn't in the Tower? That night with the Death Eaters?"

Abby nodded and Lily blushed slightly.

"He was walking about the common room like a madman. Asking everyone if they'd seen you." Abby said with a smile.

"Then once everything was okay… And Sirius hung James and Remus up on the chandelier?" Cass added through laughter.

Lily grinned. "_And_, of course, my prank."

"God, Tig! It was brill!" Cass agreed. "You saw Sirius's pictures, didn't you?"

Lily nodded again, smiling widely. "Yeah."

"You honestly could become a Marauder if you wanted to." Abby insisted.

Lily opened her mouth to reply, but her friends wouldn't have heard her anyways, as the crowd roared when the Gryffindor quidditch team flew out into the arena. Lily cheered along half-heartedly; her eyes unconsciously picking out James and watching him swoop about the pitch. She wondered how he was doing, if what Bryan had said was true. _Was it her fault_?

The quaffle was tossed up and Remus quickly grabbed it and headed for the Ravenclaw posts, but Lily was still watching James. Was he hurting as much as she had these past few months? They hadn't really talked much since that faithful day in the corridor; she'd even been avoiding that part of the castle. Of course, James had tried, but she'd just hidden away her dormitory. She hadn't gone to his huge birthday party in the common room; neither had Cass, but she'd sent a card… She missed James, in all honesty she did, but it would be too hard just to be friends again.

The announcer's voice boomed out loudly, interrupting Lily's thoughts. "Lupin passes to Bell, Bell to Lupin – oh my, Potter's seen the snitch!"

Suddenly James dove sharply, speeding almost vertically toward the ground. Lily quickly looked away as he hurtled toward the earth, and presumably the snitch. The rest of the crowd was silent in anticipation, and Cass leaned in toward Lily.

"This is the part where you hold your breath and look like you're going to pass out from worry." Cass whispered, a mischievous glint in her eye.

Lily smiled and shoved Cass playfully.

"POTTER'S DONE IT! HE'S CAUGHT THE SNITCH! 150 POINTS TO GRYFFINDOR! GRYFFINDOR WINS, 250 – 40!" The announcer roared.

Automatically the three girls stood, and clapped and cheered. As the crowds flooded out onto the pitch to congratulate the team, Cass, Lily and Abby were stuck on what to do. Sensing that Abby wanted to congratulate her boyfriend and give him a victory snog before some other girl did, Lily gave Abby a gentle push toward the pitch and smiled. "Go on. Cass and I will just go back to the castle."

Abby frowned. "You sure? You don't want to come?"

"Nah." Cass replied. "It'd be… awkward."

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Down on the pitch, James's hazel eyes were scanning the crowd for a glimpse of red, and darkened slightly when he saw Lily and Cass retreating back to the castle. Sirius followed his friend's gaze and his grinning face dropped too.

"Congratulations!" Abby said, grinning as she flung herself on Remus, enveloping him in a hug and giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. Remus swung her around, and Abby laughed happily. Several girls were scowling, but neither seemed to mind.

Sirius tore his eyes away from Cass's retreating back and scowled at Remus and Abby. "At least someone's got things with his girl going well."

James looked away from Lily to smirk. "That doesn't make much sense Padfoot."

"What doesn't?"

"The way you worded the sentence. You _should_ have said something along the lines of 'At least Remus's love life is going well' or – "

"God, you sound like Lily." Sirius interrupted. "She turned you into a total grammar freak."

"No, she didn't." James said defensively. He liked the person he could be with Lily. He could offer real opinions, just be laid back, quiet, caring… Whatever he felt like being. Lily had never minded when he was in one of his rare mellow moods, whereas Sirius would complain about him being boring.

Sirius sighed. "You're never going to get over her, are you?"

James shook his head and put on an optimistic smile. "Nope, probably not."

"In which case, I will offer you some advice that Remus gave you when you screwed up things at Halloween." Sirius said sincerely.

"Oh?"

"Yes. You're James Potter. You always come out on top." Sirius said, loosing his normally dumb and cheerful demeanor for a solemn one.

James laughed. "Meaning?"

"You're just going to have to work hard to get her back." Sirius replied.

Abby finished hugging Remus and swung an arm around each of them. Apparently they hadn't kept their voices as quietly as they had thought, and Abby had heard them. She grinned. "That's the spirit, lads!"

"Lads?" Sirius asked in confusion.

"It goes the same for you, Sirius."

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**Please review! :)******


	23. Just Friends Then Again

**Sirius's Top Ten**

**I've decided there will be a sequel, so this is the final chapter of Sirius's Top Ten. Thanks to everyone who reviewed over the past few months, I really appreciate it.**

**Sorry for the delay! But this time it's not my fault. My old computer crashed, so we had to get a new one pats lurvely new computer. You see, my brother was waiting for a friend to email him an mp3, and he got an email with the mp3 title in the subject, but he didn't know the sender. Then of course, he decided to download the attachment anyways (idiot that he is, I can't believe we're related), and it was a virus, which then messed with our computer. So... Here it is.**

**-------**

**Chapter 23: Just Friends Then. Again.**

"I've been thinking," Lily said thoughtfully as she, Abby, and Cass made their way towards their last Defense Against the Dark Arts class before exams. Abby was pleased to report to anyone who would listen – this turned out only to be Remus – that both Cass and Lily had benefited from Move On and Reminisce Day and had returned to their normal selves, pre-James and Sirius.

"Have you?" Cass asked brightly. "You tend to do that a lot."

Lily snorted. "I'm _trying_ to be serious here, Cass."

"Oh. Sorry." Cass said with an innocent look, though she didn't sound at all sorry.

"So as I was saying, before _someone_ interrupted me... I've been thinking," Lily paused to cover Cass's mouth, which was opening to come up with another sarcastic comment. "About James and I."

Cass groaned. "Not again! Lily, this really isn't healthy."

Abby nodded in agreement. "Yeah, Bear. I thought we were over them."

"I am!" Lily insisted, shifting her bag onto her other shoulder as it became too heavy. "But we've got to put up with them for another year, right?"

"Right." Cass conceded.

"So I figure I should at least be on speaking terms with him, him and Sirius, don't you think?" Lily continued, before looking to her friends for their opinion.

Abby smiled. "That makes a lot of sense. And that's really good of you, Lily."

"You know," Cass said as they turned into the classroom and took their seats in the front row. "I'm surprised you're not stressing about exams, Lily."

Lily's face went white, even paler than it normally was, and her eyes widened considerably. "I... I forgot... Exams..."

Within two seconds Lily had gotten over the shock of forgetting she had exams in two days, had found a spare piece of parchment in her bag, and was designing a study schedule for the next two days, which entailed her studying for about eight hours out of the ten she would be awake.

Abby shook her head in disbelief. "I never thought I'd see a day when Lily Evans forgot we had end of the year exams."

"I never thought I'd see the day when Lily Evans dated James Potter." Cass replied.

Abby nodded. "True, true. The world definitely works in strange ways."

"And you're realizing that now?" Cass said with a laugh. "Next thing you know, we'll be friends with a Slytherin, or one of our friends will become a death eater."

Abby gave a skeptical look. "Never say never Cass, never say never."

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After the final day of classes, Lily sat in the Gryffindor Common Room, trying to concentrate on her Arithmancy studying, but finding it increasingly difficult. For some reason, she just couldn't concentrate, which was odd considering how quiet Gryffindor Tower was. In fact, Lily was quite sure she'd never seen the Tower so quiet. The seventh-years were cramming for NEWTs and the fifth-years were studying for their OWLs, and after Frank Longbottom had nearly bitten off a third-year's head for talking too loudly, word had spread among the lower years to keep quiet.

Of course, the only ones who weren't studying were the Marauders, who slipped in through the portrait hole that very moment. Sirius never studied; James had only ever studied when Lily refused to do anything else and he wanted to spend time with her; Remus would study, once they were done any prank planned, and Peter was famous for running about the morning before an exam asking people to explain basic concepts of the subject to him.

'_Oh good, James._' Lily thought quietly to herself with a smile, glad to find a reason to procrastinate and take a break from studying. She watched as he slumped down in a seat by the fire, Sirius sitting across from him on the couch, Peter sitting next to him, and Remus walking up the dormitory stairs, probably to get some books. Standing, Lily took a step forward before doing a double take. Peter hadn't been around for a while; it was weird to see all four of them (excluding Remus at the moment) back together again. Gathering her courage, she walked up to the group, where the conversation died instantly.

Sirius had been muttering on about a new idea for a prank, but James had hardly been listening, choosing instead to stare at the fire as if it had all the answers. He looked up only when Sirius cut a sentence short, and found Lily standing there.

"Err... hi." Lily said with an awkward smile, wringing her hands as she spoke. "Could I talk to you for a minute, James?"

Sirius glared at Lily, unforgiving. Of all the times for her to start talking to James, just when Sirius was helping him finally get over her. God women had bad timing. "Now? After two months, you want to talk to him _now_? Can't you see he's a little busy?"

Ignoring Sirius, James stood. "Sure." His voice was emotionless, but his eyes gave him away. Looking into them, Lily could see the hurt she had caused, and decided it probably would be better for her _not_ to take his hand. Instead, she walked to a quiet corner of the common room, gesturing with her hand for him to follow, which he did obediently.

"Listen, James... I want us to be friends." Lily said quickly, finding that being quick and to the point would be the best.

"Friends?" James asked in disbelief. "Friends, Evans?"

"Don't call me that, James." Lily said evenly.

"_Friends_? Friends don't ignore each other for two months and then say 'okay, we're friends again'!" James replied angrily, his voice jumping up several octaves as he imitated her.

"It was awkward, James." Lily reasoned, trying not to loose her temper at the way he imitated her. She hated how he could push her buttons like that.

"It's _always_ going to be awkward if we're friends." James groaned.

"Well I think being friends will be better than nothing." Lily replied coolly.

James shook his head in disagreement. "No, being _more_ than friends would be best."

"James..." Lily faltered, looking for the words. "I can't. I just don't understand why you become so..."

"Jealous?" James finished. Lily nodded. "Because I care about you so much I want to spend every minute with you."

Lily blushed slightly, but luckily the weak firelight hid the coloring of her cheeks in its warm glow. "And you just so insecure too, James. You couldn't trust me and – "

"I was insecure because I was madly in love with you." James interrupted. "I was worried that you'd realize that you're too good for me and leave me. And you did."

Despite the lighting, you could easily see Lily's scarlet cheeks by now. "Listen, James... I cared about you too, a lot."

"_Cared_? As in past-tense?" James asked quietly, his face emotionless.

"No. I do care a lot about you." Lily corrected. "But this whole thing is much too stressful. Can't we just be friends?" she asked, looking hopeful. "For now?"

James's heart leaped up in his chest as Lily added 'for now', and a smile came across his face. "Definitely. We're friends."

Lily smiled and offered a hand, which James took, both ignoring the tingling feeling of each other's touch. "Just friends then."

"Again." James reminded her with a laugh.

Lily chuckled. "Yep. Again."

-------

"Welcome to the final Quidditch match of the season! This year's quidditch final, Gryffindor versus Slytherin!" Ludo Bagman croaked, tears streaming down his face. This would be his last year commentating, and he, as captain of the Hufflepuff team, hadn't made it into the finals. "Here comes Gryffindor, led by Captain James Potter... Black, Potter, Lupin, Bell, Thomas, Patil and Lorver!"

The crowd erupted into cheers, though many were surprised to see the ex-Marauder's Troupe up in the stands with their sign. It was currently flashing 'Let's Kick Some Esche! (Again!)', and beneath the sign stood a happy-looking redhead, a blonde, and a loud brunette. It was most definitely them, and anyone in school who had missed the newly rekindled friendship between James and Lily was now informed.

"And Slytherin, captained by Gregory Esche! Esche, Lestrange, Lestrange, Black, Black, Avery, and Malfoy!"

Aside from the Slytherins, the crowd booed loudly, but the Slytherin team took no notice. Esche looked quite grim in fact, having been hoping that James's roller coaster of a relationship with Lily would affect his game, but as James swooped around him, Gregory realized that James was definitely on top of his game.

"Monsieur Loot releases the bludgers, and the golden snitch... Potter is favored to catch the snitch, so the Slytherin chasers better have a good game... Actually, if you think about it, Slytherin's kinda screwed, considering how well David Thomas has been doing keeping, and Gryffindor's chasers are – "

"Mr. Bagman, the commentary if you please." Professor Dumbledore's kind voice interrupted the boy, mid-rant.

"Oh, sorry sir." Ludo apologized quickly. During his rant on how Slytherin's case was hopeless, the game had commenced, and Remus had already scored. "So, quaffle up, taken by Lupin, passes to Bell, intercepted by Esche, passes to Black, intercepted by Lorver, pass to Lupin, he SCORES!! 10 to nil Gryffindor! Esche takes the quaffle..."

Cass groaned, sitting down on the bench clumsily. She was only half-asleep, as she always was, and considering that she and Sirius still weren't speaking, she had no one to _really_ cheer for.

Abby laughed. "Tired?"

Cass grunted in response. Luckily, Lily and Abby had been awake to a certain extent, and had fixed her bed-head for her.

Lily smiled. "Don't worry, Gryffindor'll will soon."

Cass groaned again. "You always say that."

"AND POTTER DIVES! HE'S SEEN THE SNITCH! MALFOY FOLLOWS BUT HE'S TOO FAR BEHIND... AND POTTER'S GOT THE SNITCH!! GRYFFINDOR WINS THE QUIDDITCH CUP, 160 – 0!!!"

The crowd roared its approval, all members of the school pouring out onto the field to congratulate the team, which was hugging mid-air. Sirius had dropped his beater's bat by accident and it had landed on Severus Snape's head, but even Professor McGonagall was too happy to punish him.

Lily and Abby pushed their way through the crowd to find the boys, Abby flinging herself on Remus and Lily giving James a friendly hug.

"Congratulations." Lily said with a smile, giving James a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Thanks, Lils." James beamed, before being pulled away by Sirius towards the castle.

------  
  
The party had been going for several hours by the time Cass arrived in the common room, her face so pale it was almost ghost-like. Lily sought her out immediately, leading the shell-shocked girl to a chair by the fire.

"Cass? You alright?"

Cass only nodded, as if in a trance.

"Cass!" Lily repeated, before giving her friend a good slap across the face when she got the same reaction.

"Bloody hell Lily!" Cass yelled, clutching her cheek with both hands. "That bloody hurt!"

"You were zoned out." Lily explained, as if her action had been reasonable.

"I need to talk to Abby." Cass said determinedly.

"Oh." Lily replied, slightly upset that Cass couldn't or wouldn't talk to her. "I'll go find her."

Lily was able to search the crowd and find Abby quite quickly, pulling her away from Remus, who she was protecting from a hoard of fans, and bringing her to Cass, before leaving them to talk. She could see Cass talking, and Abby's face turning a similar ghostly shade. Obviously something had them both worried.

-----

"We're going to have to get over personal issues to sort through this." Abby said as calmly as possible, addressing the blank and horrified faces in front of her. James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter sat before each other. Cass sat behind Abby with a smug look.

"You're kidding, right?" James said finally.

"No, actually. I'm not." Cass replied irritably. "Dumbledore talked to me after the match and wants to know when CARIO will perform. Since Dippet didn't tell him, he only found out about it from the clubs list he was going over for next year."

"So he wants us to do the tap number we've been 'practicing' all year _tonight_?" Sirius asked in disbelief.

Cass smirked. "Yup."

"Don't look so pleased with yourself, Flemmings." Sirius replied heatedly. "You have to do it too."

Cass opened her mouth, ready to retort, but James began humming the tune Sirius had given to his 'Cassidy Flemmings loves me' song, and they both remained silent.

"Abby's right. We need to put personal issues aside. We have six hours to come up with a good tap number." James announced.

"Right." Remus agreed. "So, who's actually seen a tap number?"

------

"I don't see why you're so nervous, you guys have been doing this dance thing since November, haven't you?" Lily asked happily as she literally skipped down to dinner that night.

"Uh... yeah." Cass concurred. "Course."

Abby grimaced.

They reached the Great Hall much too quickly for Cass and Abby's liking, and while Lily sat at the Gryffindor table with a bemused expression, Cass and Abby made their way up to the staff table, where a stage had been set up and the Marauders were waiting.

Sirius shook his head. "This will be the end of me. I'll never get another date."

"You've had enough dates to last a lifetime." Cass replied.

Sirius stuck his tongue out at Cass, but James interrupted a possible argument by sighing loudly. "The things we do for girls, eh mate?"

Sirius nodded in agreement. "Don't know why we bother."

At this point, Dumbledore stood up, and the Hall fell silent. "Another year is gone, and tomorrow you will return to your homes, hopefully knowing a bit more than you did last year. Before dinner, the CARIO club, or Coalition of Appreciators of River music, Irish dance, and Outlets for creativity, would like to perform for you a tap number they've been practicing all year."

Several students sniggered as the six took the stage, the Slytherins daring to laugh out loud. Professor McGonagall gave them a stern look, and the Hall went silent as the music started.

The tap number was only about four minutes long, and each member of CARIO had his or her own solo, as well as about thirty seconds of tapping in unison. James, one of the few to have actually seen a tap routine, did several hops and leaps, making a unique sound on the stage. Sirius just jumped about randomly, sticking his arms and legs out in various directions for effect. Remus did a combination between river dancing and tap, Abby did a combination of Irish dance with tap, and Cass tapped as best she could, tapping out 'All You Need is Love' with her feet.

The Hall was silent as they finished and bowed, and Dumbledore had to start the applause and continue on his own for a few seconds before the rest of the school joined in. Lily laughed loudly as they took their seats around her.

"That was fabulous! Absolutely fabulous! I think I'll take up tap!"

"Oh god, I don't think I'll ever live that down." Abby muttered, helping herself to some dinner.

"I still love you, Abs." Remus replied, smiling at her. Abby grinned back, ignoring Sirius as he made several catcalls and suggestive comments.

"I can't believe the year's over. It's been a pretty interesting one." Lily remarked, the entire group nodding in agreement.

"Let's make a toast." Abby suggested, lifting her goblet of pumpkin juice.

"Toasts are cheesy, Abby." Sirius protested, though he too raised his glass.

"To new friends, like Abby." Cass said loudly, ignoring Sirius, as the group had decided they would do more often.

"To new and old relationships." Abby added.

"To our final year at Hogwarts next year." Remus put in.

"To new pranks and honorary marauders!" Sirius yelled, swinging an arm across Lily's shoulders and pulling her into his armpit.

"To us!" Lily finished. The group clinked glasses, before Sirius mentioned how old they were acting and pointed out they still had a year left, causing all maturity to fly out the window.

------  
  
The train to Hogwarts went by quickly, and in no time everyone was hugging and saying goodbye on Platform Nine and Three Quarters. Having hugged Remus, Sirius, and Peter, promised Cass and Abby to write, the only person left was James. Lily made her way up to him with a warm smile, and hugged him tightly.

"Have a good summer James."

"You too, Lily. You'll write, right?" James asked softly.

"Of course!" Lily replied dazzlingly. "I'll need to make sure you and Sirius aren't driving your mum insane."

"I'm glad we're friends, Lily."

"I'm glad too."

Lily made her way through the barrier into the muggle world, dragging her trunk and swinging her bag, until she saw her mum and dad, who she enveloped in a hug as soon as she got to them. "Mum! Dad! It's so nice to see you!" Lily cried earnestly.

Mrs. Evans's eyes were wet as she embraced her daughter, and smiled happily, pushing hair from Lily's face. "How was school, dearie?"

"It was... okay, Mum." Lily answered honestly.

"Oh? Where's James?" Mrs. Evans asked curiously, her eyes scanning the crowd for that familiar mop of messy black hair.

"He... We're just friends." Lily answered awkwardly, missing the pleased look on her father's face.

"Oh?" Mrs. Evans said quizzically.

"Yeah."

"Do you still like him?"

"Of course I like him, Mum. We're friends." Lily answered innocently.

"I meant do you still _love_ him." Mrs. Evans corrected.

"Don't you think love is a strong word, for a sixteen year old?" Mr. Evans interrupted, not liking where the conversation was going.

"I was in love with you when I was sixteen." Mrs. Evans reminded, smiling fondly at her husband. "Lily?"

"I think I do Mum."

"But?"

"But I don't know. You never know though. Maybe next year..."

Mrs. Evans nodded fondly. "Alright, sweetheart. Ready to go?"

Lily nodded. She could always be honest with her mum. And of course, you never _do _know, and absence makes the heart grow fonder.

------  
  
**Review, review, or I won't write the sequel! Snippets from the sequel, Boys Never Learn:**

"_I'll bet you that I can get Flemmings to go out with me before you can get Evans back." Sirius said with a spirited grin._

"_Padfoot, you're already my slave for next year, you don't want to loose again, do you?" James asked with a smirk._

"_I won't loose. And that's the point. I need to cancel that out." Sirius replied knowledgably._

_-------  
_

"_You're Head Boy?" Lily demanded, looking beyond shocked. "How could you be Head Boy?!?"_

"_Lily! You're supposed to be my friend!" James cried in exasperation. "You're supposed to be supportive!"_

_Lily grinned evilly. "Was Sirius supportive?"_

"_Err... No." James admitted._

"_Then I don't have to be supportive either." Lily replied smugly._

"_That's not fair!"_

_------  
  
Sirius leaned in, his eyes closed, and kissed Cass firmly on the lips. Cass's eyes widened, and she pushed him off, standing up and backing away. _

"_Black! Get away from me!"_

"_Get away from you?" Sirius repeated. "You and I both want this!"_

"_Says who?!" Cass replied furiously._

"_You and I did when we kissed last year!" Sirius replied incredulously._

"_Yes, Black. Last year!"_

"_And this year!"_

"_No, Black. Things change! This summer, I..." Cass trailed off, unsure of where to start or how to tell Sirius._

"_This summer you what?" Sirius demanded impatiently._

"_I have a boyfriend."_

_------  
_

"_A dark lord has risen. He will cause many deaths, and he will probably affect everyone of you, directly or indirectly." Dumbledore announced gravely. "He has already claimed the lives of two members of one of the most prestigious Wizarding families, we offer our condolences to the Potter family."_

_------  
_

"_My god. I didn't think it would be possible." Lily muttered quietly to herself, staring at the page in disbelief._

"_What's wrong?" Cass asked curiously._

_Lily only shook her head stubbornly. "You don't want to know."_

"_Try us." Abby persisted._

"_Petunia... she might be..." Lily gulped, as if trying to swallow the concept herself. "Pregnant."_

_There was a loud thump, and both Abby and Cass dropped down on the floor, out cold. Lily winced. "I told them they didn't want to know."_

_--------  
_

"_Lily... I tried to stop, but I can't." James said softly, gently brushing a loose ringlet from Lily's face. They were less than six inches apart now. "I love you, and being friends is too hard. Give me a chance, and I'll be better, I promise. I trust you, I truly do. Either we're not friends, or more than that, it's your decision, but – "_

_Lily interrupted him, kissing him forcefully on the lips, but James pushed away, holding her close to him, but looking for answers._

"_Does this mean?" he asked cautiously, causing Lily to smile._

"_Yep. You're stuck with me again."_


End file.
